A HISTORY 



OF 



OMAN CLASSICAL 



LITERATURE. 



BY 

: 

R. W. BROWNE, M.A., Ph. D. 

PREBENDARY OF ST. PAUL'S, 
AND PROFESSOR. OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE IN KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON. 



Meum semper judicium fuit, omnia nostras aut in.veni.sse per se 
sapientius quam Graces ; aut accepts ab illis fecisse meliora, qure 
quidem digne statuissent in qnibus elabdrarent. 

Crc. Tusc. Disp. I. 




LONDON: 
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, 

^ufclisfjcr in ©rtinary to Igcr ittnfestn. 



^ 



V 



A 



PREFACE. 



The history of Eoman Classical Literature, although 
it comprehends the names of many illustrious writers and 
many voluminous works, is, chronologically speaking, 
contained within narrow limits. Dating from its earliest 
infancy, until the epoch when it ceased to deserve the 
title of classical, its existence occupies a period of less 
than four centuries. 

The imperial city had heen founded for upwards of five 
hundred years without exhibiting more than those rudest 
germs of literary taste which are common to the most 
uncivilized nations, without producing a single author 
either in poetry or prose. 

The Eoman mind, naturally vigorous and active, was 
still uncultivated, when, about two centuries and a half 
before the Christian era, 1 conquest made the inhabitants 



B.C. 240 ; A..U. c. 514. 



VI PREFACE. 

of the capital acquainted, for the first time, with Greek 
science, art, and literature; and the last rays of classic 
taste and learning ceased to illumine the Eoman world 
before the accession of the Antonines. 1 

Such a history, however, must be introduced by a 
reference to times of much higher antiquity. The 
language itself must be examined historically, that is, 
its progress and its formation from its primitive ele- 
ments must be traced with reference to the influences 
exercised upon it from without by the natives who spoke 
the dialects out of which it was composed; and the earliest 
indications of a taste for poetry, and a desire to cultivate 
the intellectual powers, must be marked and followed out 
in their successive stages of development. In this inves- 
tigation, it will be seen how great the difficulties were 
with which literary men had to struggle under the 
Eepublic — difficulties principally arising from the physical 
activity of the people, and the practical character of the 
Eoman mind, which led the majority to undervalue and 
despise devotion to sedentary and contemplative pur- 
suits. 

The Eoman, in the olden times, had a high and self- 
denying sense of duty — he was ambitious, but his am- 
bition was for the glory, not of himself but his country ; 
he thus lived for conquest ; his motive, however, was not 



a.d. 138: a.u.c. 891. 



PREFACE. Vll 

self-aggrandizement, but the extension of the domination 
of Borne. When the state came to be merged in the indi- 
vidual, generals and statesmen sought to heap up wealth 
and to acquire power ; but it was not so in the Kepub- 
lican times. Owing to these characteristic features, the 
Eoman citizen conceived it to be his duty to devote his 
energies to the public service, he concentrated all his 
powers, mental and bodily, upon war and politics, he 
despised all other occupations and sources of fame; for 
he was conscious that his country owed her position 
amongst nations to her military prowess, and her liber- 
ties at home to the wise administration of her consti- 
tution. 

Hence it will be seen, that there never was a period in 
which literature did not require to be fostered and pro- 
tected by the patronage of the wealthy and powerful. 
Even tragedy never captivated the feelings or acquired 
an influence over the minds of the people at large as it 
did in Greece ; it degenerated into mere recitations in 
a dramatic form, addressed like any other poetry to a 
coterie. Comedy formed the only exception to this rule. 
It was the only species of literature which the masses 
thoroughly enjoyed. Learning was a sickly plant : pa- 
tronage was the artificial heat which brought it to ma- 
turity. Accius was patronized by D. Brutus ; Ennius 
by Lucilius and the Scipios ; Terence by Africanus and 
La3lius ; Lucretius by the Memmii ; Tibullus by Mes- 
sala ; Propertius by iElius Gallus ; Virgil and his friends 

6 2 



Vlll PREFACE. 



by Augustus, Maecenas, and Pollio ; Martial and Quin- 
tilian by Domitian. 

As the conquest of Magna Graecia, Sicily, and, finally, 
of Greece itself, first directed to the pursuit of intellectual 
cultivation a people, whose national literature, even if it 
deserved to be so called, was of the rudest and most 
meagre description, Eoman literature was, as might be 
expected, the offspring of the Greek, and its beauties a 
reflexion of the Greek mind ; and although some portions 
were more original than others, as being more con- 
genial to the national character — such, for example, as 
satire, oratory, and history — it was, upon the whole, 
never anything more than an imitation. It had, there- 
fore, all the faults of an imitation. As in painting those 
that study the old masters, and neglect nature, are nothing- 
more than copyists, however high the finish and elaborate 
the polish of their works may be ; so in the literature of 
Borne, we are delighted with the execution, and charmed 
with the genius, wit, and ingenuity, but we seek in vain 
for the enthusiasm and inspiration which breathes in every 
part of the original. 

One faculty of the greatest importance to literary emi- 
uence was possessed by the Eomans in the highest per- 
fection, because it may be acquired as well as innate, and 
is always improved and polished by education. — That 
faculty is taste — the ability, as Addison defines it, to 
discern the beauties of an author with pleasure, and his 
imperfections with dislike. 



PREFACE. IX 

Of the three periods into which this history is divided, 
the first may be considered as dramatic. Eloquence, 
indeed, made rapid strides, and C. Gracchus may be 
considered as the father of Latin prose ; but the language 
was not sufficiently smoothed and polished, the senti- 
ments of the orator were far superior to the diction in 
which they were conveyed. Jurisprudence also was 
studied with thoughtfulness and accuracy ; history, how- 
ever, was nothing more than annals, and epic poetry rugged 
and monotonous. But the acting-tragedy of the Romans 
is almost exclusively confined to this period; and the 
comedies of Plautus and Terence were then written, which 
have survived to command the admiration of modern 
times. Although, at this epoch, the language was 
elaborately polished and embellished with the utmost 
variety of graceful forms and expressions, it was simple 
and unconstrained : it flowed easily and naturally, and 
was therefore fall and copious; brevity and epigrammatic 
terseness are acquired qualities, and the result of art, 
although that art may be skilfully concealed. 

The second period consists of two subdivisions, of which 
the first was the era of prose, and, consequently, the period 
at which the language attained its greatest perfection ; 
for the structure, power, and genius of a language must 
be judged of by its prose, and not by its poetry. Cicero 
is the representative of this era as an orator and philoso- 
pher — Ca?sar and Sallust as historians. The second sub- 
division or the Augustan age, is the era of poetry, for in 



X PREFACE. 

it poetry arrived at the same eminence which prose had 
attained in the preceding generation. But the age of 
Cicero and that of Augustus can only be made subdi- 
visions of one great period ; they are not separated from 
each other by a strong line of demarcation ; they are 
blended together, and gradually melt into one another. 
In the former, Lucretius and Catullus were the har- 
bingers of Virgil, Horace, and Ovid ; and, in the latter, 
the sun of Cicero, Csesar, and Sallust, seems to set in the 
sweet narrative of Livy. 

The last period is rhetorical : it has been called " the 
silver age." It produced Rome's only fabulist, Phsedrus ; 
the greatest satirist, Juvenal ; the wittiest epigrammatist; 
Martial ; the most philosophical historian, Tacitus ; the 
most judicious critic, Quintilian; and a letter-writer, 
scarcely inferior to Cicero himself, the younger Pliny; 
and yet, notwithstanding these illustrious names, this 
is the period of the decline. These great names shed 
a lustre over their generation ; but they did not influence 
their taste, or arrest the approaching decay of the national 
genius : causes were at work which were rapidly pro- 
ducing this effect, and they were beyond their control. A 
new and false standard of taste was now set up, which 
was inconsistent with original genius and independent 
thought. Eome was persuaded to accept a declamatory 
rhetoric as a substitute for that fervid eloquence in which 
she had delighted, and which was now deprived of its 
use, and was driven from the Forum to the lecture-room. 



PREFACE. XI 

This taste infected every species of composition. Seneca 
abused his fine talents to teach men to admire nothing 
so much as glitter, novelty, and affectation ; and, at 
length, all became constrained, hollow, and artificial. 
With the national liberty, the national intellect lapsed 
into a state of inactivity: a period of intellectual darkness 
succeeded, the influence which the capital had lost was 
taken up by the provinces, and thus the way was paved 
for the inroad of barbarism. 

Such is the outline of this work; and if the reader finds 
some features, which he considers of great importance, 
rapidly touched upon, the extent of the subject, and the 
wish to compress it within a moderate compass, must be 
offered as the author's apology. In conclusion, the 
author acknowledges his deep obligations to those his- 
torians and biographers whose works he has consulted 
during the composition of this history. He feels that 
it would have been presumptuous to offer such a work 
to the public without having profited by the laborious 
investigations of Wolf, Bayle, Hermann, Grotefend, 
Bernhardy, Bahr, Schlegel, Lachmann, Dunlop, Matthise, 
Schoell, Krause, Eitter, Nisard, Pierron, Mebuhr, 
Milman, Arnold, Merivale, Donaldson, Smith, and the 
authors of the " Biographie Universelle." 



CONTENTS. 



BOOK I. 

FIRST ERA. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Comparison of the Latin language with the Greek — Eras of Latinity — 
Origin of the Romans — Elements of the Latin language — Etruscan 
influence .......... 1 



CHAPTER II. 

The Eugubine Tables — Existence of Oscan in Italy — Bantine Table — 
Perugian Inscription — Etruscan Alphabet and Words — Chant of 
Fratres Arvales — Salian Hymn — Other Monuments of Old Latin — 
Latin and Greek Alphabets compared .. . . . .14 

CHAPTER IH. 

Saturnian Metre — Opinions respecting its origin — Early examples of 
this Metre — Satumian Ballads in Livy — Structure of the Verse — 
Instances of Rhythmical Poetry ...... 32 

CHAPTER IV. 

Three periods of Roman Classical Literature — Its Elements rude — 
Roman Religion — Etruscan influence — Early Historical Monuments 
— Fescennine Verses — Fabulae Atellana3 — Introduction of Stage- 
Players — Derivation of Satire 39 



XIV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. 

PAGE 

Emancipation of Livius Andronicus — His imitation of the Odyssey — 
New kind of Scenic Exhibitions — First exhibition of his Dramas — 
Naevius a Political Partizan — His bitterness — His Punic War — 
His nationality— His versification . . . . . .50 

CHAPTER VI. 

Naevius stood between two Ages — Life of Ennius — Epitaphs written 
by him — His taste, learning, and character — His fitness for being a 
Literary Reformer — His influence on the language — His versifica- 
tion — The Annals — Difficulties of the Subject — Tragedies and 
Comedies — Satiree — Minor Works . . . . . .66 

CHAPTER VII. 

The New Comedy of the Greeks the Model of the Roman — The 
Morality of Roman Comedy — Want of variety in the Plots of 
Roman Comedy — Dramatis Personse — Costume — Characters — 
Music — Latin Pronunciation — Metrical Licenses — Criticism of 
Volcatius — Life of Plautus — Character of his Comedies — Analysis 
of his Plots . . ' . 77 

CHAPTER VII. 

Statius compared with Menander — Criticism of Cicero— Hypotheses 
respecting the early life of Terence — Anecdote related by Donatus 
— Style and Morality of Terence —Anecdote of him related by 
Cornelius Nepos — His pecuniary circumstances and death — Plots 
and Criticism of his Comedies — The remaining Comic Poets . .99 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Why Tragedy did not flourish at Rome — National Legends not 
influential with the People— Fabulaa Prastextatse — Roman Religion 
not ideal — Roman love for Scenes of Real Action and Gorgeous 
Spectacle — Tragedy not patronised by the People — Pacuvius — 
His Dulorestes and Paulus 124 

CHAPTER IX. 

L. Attius — His Tragedies and Fragments— Other Works — Tragedy 
disappeared with him — Roman Theatres — Traces of the Satiric 
Spirit in Greece — Roman Satire — Lucilius — Criticisms of Horace, 
Cicero, and Quintilian — Passage quoted by Lactantius— Laevius a 
Lyric Poet " 138 



CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER X. 

TAGE 

Prose Literature — Prose suitable to Roman Genius — History, Juris- 
prudence, and Oratory — Prevalence of Greek — Q. Fabius Pic tor — 
L. Cincius A limentus — C. Aciliu3_Glabrio — Value of the Annalists 
— Important literary period, during which Cai g Ccnsorius 
flourished — Sketch of his Life — His character, genius, and style . 149 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Origj pps of Cnto — Passage quoted by Gellius — Treatise De Re 
Rustica — Orations — L. Cassius Hemina — Historians in the Days of 
the Gracchi — Traditional Anecdote of Romulus — Autobiographers 
— Fragment of Quadrigarius — Falsehoods of Antias — Sisenna — 
Tubero . 1G5 

CHAPTER XII. 

Early Roman Oratory — Eloquence of Appius Claudius Caecus — 
Funeral Orations — Defence of Scipio Africanus Major — Scipio 
Africanus Minor iEmilianus — Era of the Gracchi — Their Cha- 
racters — Interval between the Gracchi and Cicero — M. Antonius — ■ 
L. Licinius Crassus — Q. Hortensius — Causes of his early popularity 
and subsequent failure . . . . . . . .179 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Study of Jurisprudence — Earliest Systematic Works orrTtoman Law 
— Groundwork of the Roman Civil Law — Eminent Jurists — The 
Scaevolse — iElius Gallus — C. Aquilius Gallus, a Law Reformer — 
Other Jurists — Grammarians . 199 



BOOK II. 

THE ERA OF CICERO AND AUGUSTUS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Prose the Test of the condition of a Language — Dramatic Literature} 
extinct — Mimes — Difference between Roman and Greek Mimes — 
Laberius— Passages from his Poetry — Matius Calvena — Mimiambi 
— Publius Syrus — Roman Pantomime — Its licentiousness — Prin- 
cipal actors of Pantomime 207 



XVI CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER II. 

PAGK 

Lucretius a Poet rather than a Philosopher — His Life — Epic structure 
of his Poem — Variety of his Poetry — Extracts from his Poem — 
Argument of it — The Epicurean Doctrines contained in it — Morality 
of Epicurus and Lucretius — Testimonies of Virgil and Ovid — 
Catullus, his Life, Character, and Poetry — Other Poets of tins 
period 217 

CHAPTER III. 

Age of Virgil favourable to Poetry — His birth, education, habits, 
illness, and death — His popularity and character — His minor Poems, 
the Culex, Ciris, Moretum, Copa and Catalecta — His Bucolics — 
Italian manners not suited to Pastoral Poetry — Idylls of Theocritus 
— Classification of the Bucolics — Subject of the Pollio — Heyne's 
theory respecting it . . . . . . . . .237 

CHAPTER IV. 

Beauty of Didactic Poetry — Elaborate finish of the Georgics — Roman 
love of Rural Pursuits — Hesiod suitable as a Model — Condition of 
Italy — Subjects treated of in the Georgics — Some striking passages 
enumerated — Influence of Roman Literature on English Poetry — 
Sources from which the incidents of the iEneid are derived — 
Character of iEneas — Criticism of Niebulu ..... 252 

CHAPTER V. 

The Libertini — Roman feelings as to Commerce — Birth and infancy 
of Horace — His early education at Rome — His Military career — 
He returns to Rome — Is introduced to Maecenas — Commences the 
Satires — Maecenas gives him his Sabine Farm— His country life — 
The Epodes — Epistles — Carmen Seculare — Illness and death . 266 

CHAPTER VI. 

Character of Horace — Descriptions of his Villa at Tivoli, and his 
Sabine Farm — Site of the Bandusian Fountain — The neighbouring 
Scenery — Subjects of his Satires and Epistles — Beauty of his Odes 
— Imitations of Greek Poets — Spurious Odes — Chronological 
Arrangement .......... 282 

CHAPTER VII. 

Biography of Maecenas — His intimacy and influence with Augustus — 
His character — Valgius Rufus — Varius — Cornelius Gallus — Bio- 
graphy of Tibullus— His style — Criticism of Muretus — Propertius 
— Imitated the Alexandrian Poets — JEmilius Macer . . . 299 



CONTENTS. XV11 

CHAPTER VIII. 

PAGB 

Birth and education of Ovid — His rhetorical powers— Anecdote 
related by Seneca — His poetical genius — Self-indulgent life — 
Popularity — Banishment — Place of his Exile — Epistles and other 
Works — Gratius Faliscus — Pedo Albinovanus — Aulus Sabinus — 
Marcos Manilins . 313 

CHAPTER IX. 

Prose Writers — Influence of Cicero upon the Language — His converse 
with his Friends — His early Life — Pleads his first Cause — Is 
Quaestor, ^Edile, Praetor, and Consul — His exile, return, and pro- 
vincial Administration — His vacillating conduct — He delivers his 
Philippics — Is proscribed and assassinated — His character . . 328 

CHAPTER X. 

Cicero no Historian — His Oratorical style defended — Its principal 
charm — Observations on his forensic Orations — His Oratory essen- 
tially judicial — Political Orations — Rhetorical Treatises — The object 
of his Philosophical Works — Characteristics of Roman Philosophical 
Literature — Philosophy of Cicero — His Political Works — Letters — 
His Correspondents — Varro ....... 341 

CHAPTER XL 

Roman Historical Literature — Principal Historians — Lucceius — 
Lucullus — Cornelius Nepos — Opinions of the genuineness of the 
Works which bear his Name — Biography of J. Caesar — His Com- 
mentaries — Their style and language — His modesty overrated — 
Other Works— Character of Caesar 368 

CHAPTER Xn. 

Life of Sallust — His insincerity — His Historical Works — He was a 
bitter opponent of the New Aristocracy — Profligacy of that Order — 
His style compared with that of Thucydides — His value as an His- 
torian — Trogus Pompeius — His Histories Philippics . . . 385 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Life of Livy — His object in writing Ids History — Its spirit and 
character — Livy precisely suited to his Age — Not wilfully inac- 
curate — His political bias accounted for — Materials which he might 
have used — Sources of his History — His defects as an Historian — 
His style — Grammarians — Vitruvius Pollio, an Augustan Writer 
—Contents of his Work 394 



XV111 CONTENTS. 



BOOK III. 
ERA OF THE DECLINE. 



CHAPTER I. 



PAGE 



Decline of Roman Literature — It became declamatory — Biography of 
Pha?dras— Genuineness of liis Fables — Moral and Political Lessons 
inculcated in them — Specimens of Fables — Fables suggested by 
Historical events — Sejanus and Tiberius — Epoch unfavourable to 
Literature — Ingenuity of Phsedrus — Superiority of JEsop — The 
style of Phsedras classical 409 

CHAPTER II. 

Dramatic Literature in the Augustan Age — Revival under Nero — 
Defects of the Tragedies attributed to Seneca — Internal evidence of 
their authorship — Seneca the Philosopher a Stoic — Inconsistent and 
unstable — The sentiments of his Philosophical Works found in his 
Tragedies — Parallel passages compared — French School of Tragic 
Poets 424 

CHAPTER III. 

Biography of Persius — His schoolboy days — His friends — His purity 
and modesty — His defects as a Satirist — Subjects of his Satires — 
Obscurity of his style — Compared with Horace — Biography of 
Juvenal — Corruption of Roman Morals — Critical observations on 
the Satires — Their Historical value — Style of Juvenal — He was the 
last of Roman Satirists . . . . . • . . 434 

CHAPTER IV. 

Biography of Lucan — Inscription to his Memory — Sentiments ex- 
pressed in the Pharsalia — Lucan an unequal Poet — Faults and 
merits of the Pharsalia— Characteristics of his Age — Difficulties of 
Historical Poetry — Lucan a descriptive Poet — Specimens of his 
Poetry — Biography of Silius Italicus — His character by Pliny — 
His Poem dull and tedious — His description of the Alps . . 452 



CONTENTS. XIX 

CHAPTER V. 

PAGE 

C. Valerius Flaccus — Faults of the Argonautica — Papinius Statins — 
Beauty ofhis minor Poems — Incapable of Epic Poetry— Domitian — 
Epigram — Martial — His Biography — Profligacy of the Age in 
which he lived — Impurity of his Writings — Favourable specimens 
of his Poetry 46 G 

CHAPTER VI. 

Aufidius Bassus and Cremutius Cordus — Velleius Paterculus — 
Character of his Works — Valerius Maximus — Cornelius Tacitus — 
Age of Trajan — Biography of Tacitus — His extant Works enu- 
merated — Agricola — Germany — Histories — Traditions respecting 
the Jews — Annals — Object of Tacitus — His character — His style . 482 

CHAPTER VII. 

C. Suetonius Tranquillus — His Biography — Sources of his History — 
His great fault — Q. Curtius Rufus — Time when he flourished 
doubtful — His Biography of Alexander — Epitomes of L. Annaeus 
Floras— Sources whence he derived them ..... 499 

CHAPTER VIII. 

M. Annceus Seneca — His Controversial and Suasoria? — L. Annaeus 
Seneca — Tutor to Nero — His enormous fortune — His death and 
character — Inconsistencies in his Philosophy — A favourite with 
early Christian Writers — His Epistles — Work on Natural Pheno- 
mena — Apocolocyntosis — His style . . . . . . 507 

CHAPTER IX. 

Pliny the Elder — His habits described by his Nephew — His industry 
and application — His death in the eruption of Vesuvius — The 
Eruption described in two Letters of Pliny the Younger — The 
Natural History of Pliny — Its subjects described — Pliny the 
Younger — His affection for his guardian — His Panegyric, Letters, 
and Despatches — That concerning the Christians — The answer . 515 

CHAPTER X. 

M. Fabius Quintilianus — His Biography — His Institutions Oratonaa 
— His views of Education — Division of his Subject into Five Parts 
— Review of Greek and Roman Literature — Completeness of his 
great Work — His other Works — His disposition — Grief for the 
loss of his son ...... ... 534 



XX CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XI. 



A. Cornelius Celsus — His merits — Cicero Medicoram — Scribonius 
Largus Designatianus — Pomponius Mela — L. Junius Moderatus 
Columella — S. Julius Frontinus — Decline of taste in the Silver 
Age — Foreign Influence on Roman Literature — Conclusion . . 544 

Chronological Table 551 



PART II. 



ROMAN LITEEATUR E. 

Book I. — First Era. 



CHAPTER I. 

COMPARISON OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE WITH THE GREEK — ERAS OF 
LATINITY — ORIGIN OF THE ROMANS — ELEMENTS OF THE LATIN 
LANGUAGE — ETRUSCAN INFLUENCE. 

The various races which, from very remote antiquity, 
inhabited the peninsula of Italy, necessarily gave a com- 
posite character to the Eatin Language. But as all of 
them sprang from one common origin, the great Indo- 
European stock to which also the Hellenic family be- 
longed, a relation of the most intimate kind is visible 
between the languages of ancient Greece and Eome. 
Xot only are then alphabets and grammatical construc- 
tions identical, but the genius of the one is so similar to 
that of the other, that the Eomans readily adopted the 
principles of Greek literary taste, and Latin, without losing 
its own characteristic features, moulded itself after the 
Greek model. 

Latin, however, has not the plastic property which the 
Greek possesses — the natural faculty of transforming 
itself into every variety of shape conceived by the fancy 
and imagination. It is a harder material, it readily 
takes a polish, but the process by which it receives it is 

B 



Z ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

laborious and artificial. Greek, like a liquid or a soft 
substance, seems to crystallize as it were spontaneously 
into the most beautiful forms : Latin, whether poetry or 
prose, derives only from consummate art and skill that 
graceful beauty which is the natural property of the 
kindred language. 

Latin, also, to continue the same metaphor, has other 
characteristic features of hard substances — gravity, solidity, 
and momentum or energy. It is a fit language for em- 
bodying and expressing the thoughts of an active and 
practical but not an imaginative and speculative people. 

But the Latin language, notwithstanding its nervous 
energy and constitutional vigour, has, by no means, ex- 
hibited the permanency and vitality of the Greek. The 
Greek language, reckoning from the earliest works extant 
to the present day, boasts of an existence measured by 
nearly one-half the duration of the human race, and yet 
how gradual were the changes during the classical 
periods, and how small, when compared with those of 
other European languages, the sum and result of them 
all ! Setting aside the differences due to race and physical 
organization, there are no abrupt chasms, no broad hues 
of demarcation, between one literary period and another. 
The transition is gentle, slow, and gradual. The suc- 
cessive steps can be traced and followed out. The literary 
style of one period melts and is absorbed into that of the 
following one, just like the successive tints and colours 
of the prism. The Greek of the Homeric poems is not 
so different from that of Herodotus and Thucydides, or 
the tragedians or the orators, or even the authors of the 
later debased ages, but that the same scholar who under- 
stands the one can analyse the rest. Though separated 
by so many ages, the contemporaries of Demosthenes 
could appreciate the beauties of Homer ; and the Byzan- 
tines and early Christian fathers wrote and spoke the 
language of the ancient Greek philosophers. 



VITALITY OF GREEK. 6 

The Greek Language long outlived Greek nationality. 
The earliest Roman historians wrote in Greek because 
the}' had as yet no native language fitter to express their 
thoughts. The Romans, in the time of Cicero, made 
Greek the foundation of a liberal education, and fre- 
quented Athens as a University for the purpose of 
studying Greek literature and philosophy. The great 
orator, in his defence of the poet Archias, informs us 
that Greek literature was read by almost all nations of 
the world, whilst Latin was still confined within very 
narrow boundaries. At the commencement of the Chris- 
tian era Greek was so prevalent throughout the civilized 
world, that it was the language chosen by the Evan- 
gelists for recording the doctrines of the gospel. In the 
time of Hadrian Greek was the favourite language of 
literary men. The Princess Anna Comnena, daughter 
of the Emperor Alexis, and Eustathius, the commentator 
on Homer, both of whom flourished in the twelfth century 
after the birth of Christ, are celebrated for the singular 
purity of their style ; and, lastly, Philelphus, who lived 
in the fifteenth century, and had visited Constantinople, 
states, in a letter dated a. d. 1451, that although much 
bad Greek was spoken in that capital, the court, and 
especially the ladies, retained the dignity and elegance 
which characterise the purest writers of the classical 
ages. " Graaci quibus lingua depravata non sit, et quos 
ipsi turn sequimur turn imitamur ita loquuntur vulgo 
etiam hac tempestate ut Aristophanes comicus ut 
Euripides tragicus, ut oratores omnes ut historiographi 
ut philosophi etiam ipsi et Plato et Aristoteles. Yiri 
aulici veterem sermonis dignitatem atque elegantiam 
retinebant." 1 

Such was the wonderful vitality of Greek in its ancient 
form ; and yet, strange to say, notwithstanding it clung 



1 See Forster's Essay on Greek Quantity, c. vi. 

B 2 



4 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

so to existence, it seems as though it was a plant of such 
delicate nature, that it could only nourish under a com- 
bination of favourable circumstances. It pined and 
withered when separated from the living Greek intel- 
lect. It lived only where Greeks themselves lived, in 
their fatherland or in their colonies. It refused to take 
root elsewhere. Whenever in any part of the world a 
Greek settlement decayed, and the population became 
extinct, even although Greek art and science, and litera- 
ture and philosophy, had found there a temporary home, 
the language perished also. 

The Greek language could not exist when the foster- 
ing- care of native genius was withdrawn: it then shrunk 
back again into its original dimensions, and was confined 
within the boundaries of its original home. When the 
Greeks in any place passed away, their language did not 
influence or amalgamate with that of the people which 
succeeded them. Latin, on the other hand, was propa- 
gated like the dominion of Rome by conquest : it either 
took the place of the language of the conquered nation, 
or became engrafted upon it and gradually pervaded its 
composition. Hence its presence is discernible in all 
European languages. In Spain it became united with 
the Celtic and Iberian as early as the period of the 
Gracchi: it was planted in Gaul by the conquests of 
Julius Csesar, and in Britain (so far as the names of 
localities are concerned) by his transient expeditions ; 
and lastly, in the reign of Trajan, it became permanently 
fixed in the distant regions of Dacia and Pannonia. 

It is scarcely correct to term Greek a dead language. 
It has degenerated, but has never perished or disappeared. 
Its harmonious modulations are forgotten, and its delicate 
pronunciation is no longer heard, but Greek is still 
spoken at Athens. The language, of course, exhibits 
those features which constitute the principal difference 
between ancient and modern languages ; prepositions and 



ITS INDIVIDUALITY. 

particles have supplanted affixes and inflexions, auxiliary 
verbs supply the gaps caused by the crumbling away of 
the old conjugations, and literal translations of modern 
modes of speech give an air of incongruity and barbarism ; 
but still the language is upon the whole wonderfully 
preserved. A well-educated modern Greek would find 
less difficulty in understanding the writings of Xenophon 
than an Englishman would experience in reading Chaucer, 
or perhaps Spenser. 

Greek has evinced not only vitality, but individuality 
likewise. Compared with other languages, its stream 
flowed pure through barbarous lands, and was but little 
tinged or polluted by the soil through which it passed. 
There is nothing of this in Latin, neither the vitality 
nor the power of resistance to change. Strange to say, 
although partially derived from the same source, its pro- 
perties appear to be totally different. Latin seems to 
have a strong disposition to change ; it readily became 
polished, and as readily barbarized ; it had no difficulty 
in enriching itself with new expressions borrowed from 
the Greek, and conforming itself to Greek rules of taste 
and grammar. When it came in contact with the lan- 
guages of other nations, the affinity which it had for 
them was so strong that it speedily amalgamated with 
them, but it did not so much influence them as itself 
receive an impress from them. It did not supersede, 
but it became absorbed in and was corrupted by, other 
tongues. Probably, as it was originally made up of many 
European elements, it recognized a relationship with all 
other languages, and therefore readily admitted of fusion 
together with them into a composite form. Its existence 
is confined within the limits of less than eight centuries. 
It assumed a form adapted for literary composition less 
than two centuries and a half before the Christian era, 
and it ceased to be a spoken language in the sixth 
century. 



6 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

As long as the Eoman empire existed in its integrity, 
and the capital city retained its influence as the patron 
to whom all literary men must look for support, and as 
the model of refinement and civilization, the language 
maintained its dominion. Provincial writers endeavoured 
to rid themselves of their provincialisms. At Borne 
they formed their taste and received their education. 
The rule of language was the usage of the capital, but, 
when the empire was dismembered, and language was thus 
set free from its former restrictions, each section of it felt 
itself at liberty to have an independent language and 
literature of its own, the classical standard was neglected, 
and Latin rapidly became barbarized. Again, Latin has 
interpenetrated or become the nucleus of every language 
of civilized Europe : it has shown great facilities of 
adaptation, but no individuality or power to supersede ; 
but the relation which it bears to them is totally unlike 
that which ancient Greek bears to modern. The best 
Latin scholar would not understand Dante or Tasso, nor 
would a knowledge of Italian enable one to read Horace 
and Virgil. 

The old Eoman language, as it existed previous to 
coming in contact with Greek influences, has almost 
entirely perished. It will be shown hereafter that only 
a few records of it remain ; and the language of these 
fragments is very different from that of the classical 
period. 'Nor did the old language grow into the new 
like the Greek of two successive ages by a process of 
development, but it was remoulded by external and 
foreign influences. So different was the old Eoman from 
classical Latin, that although the investigations of 
modern scholars have enabled us to decipher the frag- 
ments which, remain, and to point out the analogies 
which exist between old and new forms, some of them 
were with difficulty intelligible to the cleverest and best 
educated of the Augustan age. The treaty which Eome 



ORIGIN OV THE ROMANS. 7 

made with Carthage in the first year of the Republic was 
engraved on brazen tablets, and preserved in the archives 
of the Capitol. Polybius had learning enough to trans- 
late it into Greek, but he tells us that the language of it 
was too archaic for the Romans of his day. 1 

A wide gap separates this old Latin from the Latin of 
Ennius, whose style was formed by Greek taste; another 
not so wide is interposed between the age of Ennius and 
that of Plautus and Terence, both of whom wrote in the 
language of their adopted city, but confessedly copied 
Greek models ; and, lastly, Cicero and the Augustan poets 
mark another age, to which from the preceding one, the 
only transition with which we are acquainted is the style 
of oratory of Caius Gracchus, which tradition informs us 
was free from ancient rudeness, although it had not 
acquired the smoothness and polish of Hortensius or 
Cicero. 

In order to arrive at the origin of the Latin language 
it will be necessary to trace that of the Romans them- 
selves. In the most distant ages to which tradition 
extends, the peninsula of Italy appears to have been 
inhabited by three stocks or tribes of the great Indo- 
Germanic family. One of these is commonly known by 
the name of Oscans ; another consisted of two branches, 
the SabeUians, or Sabines, and the Umbrians ; the third 
were called Sikeli, sometimes Vituli and Itali. What 
affinities there were between these and the other Indo- 
European tribes out of Italy, or by what route they 
came from the original cradle of the human race is 
Wrapped in obscurity. Donaldson considers that all the 
so-called aboriginal inhabitants of Italy were of the 
same race as the Lithuanians or old Prussians. The 
Oscans evidently, from the name which tradition assigns 
to them, claimed to be the aboriginal inhabitants. The 



Pol. Hist. iii. 22 : see Donaldson's Varron. 



8 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

name Osci, or Opici, which is a longer form of it, is 
etymologically connected with Ops, the goddess Earth, 
and consequently their national appellation is equivalent to 
the Greek terms avroyfioves, or yyjyevew, the " children of 
the soil." That the Sabellians and Umbrians are branches 
of the same stock is proved by the similarity which has 
been discovered to exist between the languages spoken 
by them. The Umbrians also claimed great antiquity, 
for the Greeks are said to have given them their name 
from o/x/3/?o9, rain; implying that they were an ante- 
diluvian race, and had survived the storms of rain which 
deluged the world. Pliny likewise considers them the 
most ancient race in Italy. 1 

The original settlements of the Umbrians extended 
over the district bounded on one side by the Tiber, on 
the other by the Po. All the country to the south was 
in the possession of the Oscans, with the exception of 
Latium, which was inhabited by the Sikeli. But in 
process of time, the Oscans, pressed upon by the 
Sabellians, invaded the abodes of this peaceful and rural 
people, some of whom submitted and amalgamated with 
their conquerors, the rest were driven across the narrow 
sea into Sicily, and gave the name to that island. 2 
These native tribes were not left in undisturbed pos- 
session of their rich inheritance. There arrived in the 
north of Italy that enterprising race, famed alike for 
their warlike spirit and their skill in the arts of peace, 
the Pelasgians (or dark Asiatics), and became the civilizers 
of Italy. Historical research has failed to discover what 
settlements this wonderful race inhabited immediately 
previous to their occupation of Etruria. According to 
Livy's account 3 they must have arrived in Italy by sea, 
for he asserts that their first settlements were south of 
the Apennines, that thence they spread northwards, and 



Plin. N. H. iii. 14. 2 See Thucyd. ii. 6. 3 Lib. v. 33. 



IMMIGRATION OF THE ETRUSCANS. 9 

that the Rhseti were a portion of them, and spoke their 
language in a barbarous and corrupt form. His testi- 
mony ought to have some weight, because, as a native of 
the neighbourhood, he probably knew the Bhsotian 
language. Their immigration must have taken place 
more than one thousand years before Christ, 1 and yet 
they were far advanced in the arts of civilization and 
refinement, and the science of politics and social life. 
They enriched their newly-acquired country with com- 
merce, and filled it with strongly-fortified and populous 
cities : their dominion rapidly spread over the whole of 
Italy from sea to sea, from the Alps to Vesuvius and 
Salerno, and even penetrated into the islands of Elba 
and Corsica. 2 Herodotus 3 asserts that they migrated 
from Lydia; and this tradition was adopted by the 
Romans and by themselves. 4 Dionysius 5 rejects this 
theory on the grounds that there is no similarity 
between the Lydian and Etruscan language, religion, or 
institutions, and that Xanthus, a native Lydian historian, 
makes no mention of this migration. Doubtless the 
language is unique, nor can a connexion be traced 
between it and any family; but their alphabet is 
Phoenician, their theology and polity oriental, their 
national dress and national symbol, the eagle, was 
Lydian, and a remarkable custom alluded to both by 
Herodotus 6 and Plautus 7 was Lydian likewise. 

Entering the territory of the TJmbrians they drove 
them before them into the rugged and mountainous 
districts, and themselves occupied the rich and fertile 
plains. The head-quarters of the invaders was Etruria ; 
the conquered TJmbrians lived amongst them as a subject 
people, like the Peloponnesians under their Dorian con- 



1 MUller, Etrusk. iv. 7, 8. 

2 See authorities quoted by Dennis, Cities of Etruria, i. xxiv. 

3 Lib. i. 94. 4 Tac. Ann. iv. 55. 5 Lib. i. p. 22, 24. 
b Lib. i. 93. ; Cistell. II. iii. 20. 



10 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

querors, or the Saxons under the Norman nobility. 
This portion of the Pelasgians called themselves Rasena, 
the Greeks spoke of them as Tyrseni, a name evidently 
connected with the Greek rvppts or rupees (Latin, Turris), 
and which remarkably confirms the assertion of Hero- 
dotus, since the only Pelasgians who were famed for 
architecture or tower-building, were those who claimed a 
Lydian extraction, namely, the Argives and Etruscans. 1 
This theory of the Pelasgian origin of the Etruscans is 
due to Lepsius, 2 and has been adopted by Donaldson ; 3 
and if it be correct, the language of Etruria was probably 
Pelasgian amalgamated with, and to a certain extent 
corrupted by, the native Umbrian. 

Pelasgian supremacy on the left bank of the Tiber 
found no one to dispute it. Let us now turn our attention 
to the influence of these invaders in lower Italy. As 
they marched southwards, they vanquished the Oscans 
and occupied the plains of Latium. They did not, 
however, remain long at peace in the districts which they 
had conquered. The old inhabitants returned from the 
neighbouring highlands to which they had been driven, 
and subjugated the northern part of Latium. 

The history of the occupation of Etruria, which has 
been already related, was here acted over again, with 
only the following alteration, that here the Oscan was 
the dominant tribe, and the subject people amongst 
whom they took up their abode were Pelasgians and 
Sikeli, by whom the rest of the low country of Latium 
was still occupied. The towns of the north formed a 
federal union, of which Alba was the capital, whilst of 
the southern or Pelasgian confederacy the chief city was 
Lavinium, or Latinium. The conquering Oscans were 



1 A Cyclopean or Pelasgian wall, built of polygonal stones, without 
mortar, exists so far north as Diisternbrook, near Kiel, in Schleswig- 
Holstein. 

' 2 CTeber die Tyr. Pel. in Etr. Leips. 1842. s Varronianus, i. sec. 10. 



ELEMENTS OF LATIN. 1 I 

a nation of warriors and hunters, and consequently, as 
Niebuhr remarked, in the language of this district the 
terms belonging to war and hunting are Oscan, whilst 
those which relate to peace and the occupations of rural 
life are Pelasgian. As, therefore, the language of Etruria 
was Pelasgian, corrupted by Umbrian, so Pelasgian 
4- Oscan is the formula which represents the language of 
Latium. 

But the Roman or Latin language is still more com- 
posite in its nature, and consists of more than these two 
elements. This phenomenon is also to be accounted for 
by the origin of the Roman people. The septi-montium 
upon which old Rome was built w r as occupied by different 
Italian tribes. A Latin tribe belonging, if we may trust 
the mythical tradition, to the Alban confederacy, had 
their settlement upon the Mount Palatine, and a Sabine 
or Sabellian community occupied the neighbouring 
heights of the Quirinal and Capitoline. Mutual jealousy 
of race kept them for some time separate from each 
other ; but at length the privilege of intermarriage was 
conceded, and the two communities became one people. 

The Tyrrhene Pelasgians, however, separated only by a 
small river from this new state, rapidly rising to power 
and prosperity, w T ere not likely to view its existence 
without distrust and jealousy. Accordingly the early 
Roman historical traditions evidently point to a period, 
during which Rome was subject to Etruscan rule. When 
the Etruscan dynasty passed away, its influence in many 
respects still remained. The religion and mythology of 
Etruria left an indelible stamp on the rites and ceremo- 
nies of the Roman people. The Etruscan deities were 
the natural gods of Rome before the influence of Greek 
poetry introduced the mythology of Homer and Hesiod 
into her Pantheon. The characters and attributes of 
these deities w r ere totally different from those of Greece. 
Xo licentious orgies disgraced their worship ; they were 



12 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

defiled by none of their vices. 1 Saturn, Janus, Sylvanus, 
Faunas, and other Etruscan deities, were grave, venerable, 
pure, and delighted in the simple occupations of rural 
life. It was only general features of resemblance which 
enabled the poets in later ages to identify Saturn with 
Kronos, Sylvanus with Pan, the prophetic Camense of 
the Janiculum with the muses of Parnassus. 2 The point, 
however, most important for the present considera- 
tion is that their language likewise was permanently 
affected. 

The ethnical affinities which have been here briefly 
stated, and which may be considered as satisfactorily 
established by the investigations of Niebuhr, Miiller, 
Lepsius, Donaldson, and others, are a guide to the affini- 
ties of the Latin language, and point out the elements of 
which it is composed. These elements, then, are Umbrian, 
Oscan, Etruscan, Sabine, and Pelasgian ; but, as has been 
stated, the Etruscan language was a compound of Oscan 
and Pelasgian, and the Sabine was the link, between the 
Umbrian and Oscan, therefore the elements of the Latin 
are reduced to three, namely, Umbrian, Oscan and Pelas- 
gian. These may again be classified under two heads, 
the one which has, the other which has not, a resem- 
blance to the Greek. All Latin words which resemble 



1 Heyne, Esc. Virg. 2En. iii. 

2 The religion of Eome furnishes many other traces of Etruscan influ- 
ence : — ex. gi\, the ceremonies of the augurs and haruspices were Etruscan, 
and the lituus, or augur's staff, may be seen on old Etruscan monuments. 
The Tuscan Fortune, Nortia, the etymology of whose name (ne-verto) coin- 
cides with that of the Greek 'Arpcnros (the unchangeable), had the nails, the 
emblem of necessity, as her device ; and hence the consul marked the com- 
mencement of the year hj driving a nail. 

The Roman Hymen, the god of marriage, was Talassius ; a fact which 
illustrates one of the incidents in the tradition which Livy (book i. c. ix.) 
adopts respecting the rape of the Sabine virgins. 

The name Talassius was evidently derived from the Tuscan name 
Thalna, or Talana, by which was designated the Juno Pronuba of the 
Romans, and the c Hpij reAeia of the Greeks. 



PELASGIAN ELEMENT. 13 

the Greek are Pelasgian, 1 all wliicli do not are Oscan and 
Umbrian. From the first of these classes must of course 
be excepted those words — such, for example, as Tricli- 
nium, &c, — which are directly derived from the Greek, 
the origin of which dates partly from the time when 
Borne began to have intercourse with the Greek colonies 
of Magna Grsecia, partly since Greek exercised an in- 
fluence on Roman literature. It is clear from the testi- 
mony of Horace that the enriching of the language by 
the adoption of such foreign words was defended and 
encouraged by the literary men of the Augustan age : — 

Si forte necesse est 



Indiciis monstrare recentibus abdita rerum 
Fingere cinctutis non exaudita Cethegis 
Continget ; dabiturque licentia sumta pudenter, 
Et nova fictaque nuper habebunt verba fidem, si 
Grseco fonte cadant, parce detcrta. 

Hor. Ep. ad Pis. 48. 



1 Owing to the existence of the Pelasgian element in Latin, as well as in 
Greek, an affinity can be traced between these languages and the Sanscrit 
in no fewer than 339 Greek and 319 Latin words. 



14 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTEK II. 

THE EUGUBINE TABLES — EXISTENCE OE OSCAN IN ITALY — BANTINE 
TABLE — PERUGIAN INSCRIPTION — ETRUSCAN ALPHABET AND 
WORDS — CHANT OF FRATRES ARVALES— SALIAN HYMN — OTHER 
MONUMENTS OF OLD LATIN — LATIN AND GREEK ALPHABETS COM- 
PARED. 

THE UMBRIAN LANGUAGE. 

In the neighbourhood of Ugubio, 1 at the foot of the 
Apennines (the ancient Iguvium), were discovered, in 
a.d. 1444, seven tables, commonly called the Eugubine 
Tables. They were in good preservation, and contained 
prayers and rules for religious ceremonies. Some of 
them were engraved in the Etruscan or Umbrian charac- 
ters, others in Latin letters. Lepsius 2 has determined, 
from philological considerations, that the date of them 
must be as early as from A.u.c. 400, 3 and that the Latin 
were engraved about two centuries later. A comparison 
of the two shows, in the Umbrian character, the letter s 
standing in the place occupied by r in the Latin, and k 
in the place of g, because the Etruscan alphabet, with 
which the Umbrian is the same, did not contain the medial 
letters B, G, D. An analogous substitute is seen in the 
transition from the old to the more modern Latin. The 
names Eurius and Caius, for example, were originally 
written Eusius and Gaius. His also introduced between 



1 See Donaldson's Varron., c. iii. 2 Leps. de Tab. Eug., p. 86. 

3 B. c. 354. 



KKLATION OF UMBRIAN TO LATIN. 



15 



two vowels, as stahito for stato, in the same way that in 
Latin aheneus is derived from aes. It also appears that 
the termination of the masculine singular was o : thus, 
orfco = ortus ; whilst that of the plural was or ; e.g., subator 
= subacid ; screhitor = scripti. This mode of inflexion 
illustrates the form amaminor for amamini, which was 
itself a participle used for amamini estis, an idiom analo- 
gous to the Greek TervjJLjJLevoi hat. 

The following extract, with, the translation by Donald- 
son, 1 together with a few words which present the 
greatest resemblance to the Latin, will suffice to give a 
general notion of the relation which the Umbrian bears 
to it: — 

Teio subokau suboko, Dei Grrabovi, okriper Fisiu, tota- 
per Jiovina, erer nomne-per, erar nomne-per ; fos sei, 
paker sei, okre Fisei, Tote Jiovine, erer nomne, erar 
nomne : Tab. VI. (Lepsius). Te invocavi invoco, Jupiter 
Grabovi, pro monte Fisio, pro urbe Iguvina, pro illius 
nomine, pro hujus nomine, bonus sis, propitius sis, monti 
Fisio, urbi Iguvina?, illius nomine, hujus nomine. 



Alfu 


albus 


white 


Asa 


ara 


altar 


Aveis 


aves 


birds 


Buf 


boves 


oxen 


Ferine 


farina 


meal 


Nep 


nee 


nor 


Nome 


nomen 


name 


Parfa 


parra 


owl 


Peica 


picus 


pie 


Periklum 


preculum 


prayer (dim.) 


Poplus 


populus 


people 


Puni 


panis 


bread 


Relite 


recte 


rightly 


Skrehto 


scriptus 


written 


Suboko 


sub voco 


invoke 


Subra 


supra 


above 


Tafle 


tabula 


table 


Tuplu 


duplus 


double 


Tripler 


triplus 


triple 




1 Varronianus, c. iii. 





16 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



Tota 


(analogous to) totus 


a city (a whole or collection) 


Vas 


fas 


law 


Vinu 


vinum 


wine 


Uve 


ovis 


sheep 


Vitlu 


vitulus 


calf. 1 



THE OSCAN LANGUAGE. 

The remains which have come down to ns of this 
language belong, in fact, to a composite idiom made up 
of the Sabine and Oscan. Although its literature has 
entirely perished, inscriptions fortunately still survive; 
but as they must have been engraved long subsequently 
to the settlement of the Sabellians in Southern Italy, the 
language in which they are written must necessarily be 
compounded of those spoken both by the conquerors and 
the conquered. Although Livy 2 makes mention of an 
Oscan dramatic literature," for he tells us that the " Fa- 
buhe Atellanse " of the Oscans were introduced when a 
pestilence raged at Borne, 3 together with other theatrical 
entertainments, he only speaks of the Oscan language 
in one passage. 4 This, however, is an important one, 
because it proves that Oscan was the vernacular tongue 
of the Samnites at that period. He relates that Volum- 
nius sent spies into the Samnite camp who understood 
Oscan : " Gnaros Oscse linguse exploratum quid agatur 
mittit." 

It is clear that the reason why the Oscan language 
prevailed amongst this people is, that the dominant 
orders in Samnium were Sabines. But there is evidence 
of the existence of Oscan in Italy at a still later period. 
Niebuhr 5 asserts that in the Social War 6 the Marsi 
spoke Oscan, although in writing they used the Latin 
characters. Some denarii still exist struck by the con- 



1 See Grotefend, Rud. Ling. Umbr. Hanov. 1835 ; and Lassen. Beitrage 
zur Eug. Tafeln. Rhein. Mus. 1833. 2 Liv. vii. 11. 

3 a. u. c. 361 ; B. c. 393. 4 Liv. x. 20. 

5 Lect. on Rom. Hist. 1. xxxiii. 6 a. u. c. 664 ; b. c. 90. 



THE BANTINE TABLE. 



17 



federate Italian Government established in that war at 
Corrinium, on which the word Italia is inscribed, whilst 
others bear the word Viteliu. The latter is the old 
Oscan orthography, the former the Latin. One class of 
these coins, therefore, was stmck for the use of the 
Sabine, the other of the Marsian allies. It is said also 
that Oscan was spoken even after the establishment of 
the empire. 

The principal monument of the Sabello -Oscan is a 
brass plate which was discovered a.d. 1793. As the 
word Bansw occurs in the 23 rd line of the inscription, 
it has been supposed to refer to the town of Bantia, 
which was situated not far from the spot where the 
tablet was found, and it is therefore called the Bantine 
Table. In consequence of the perfect state of the central 
portion, much of this inscription has been interpreted 
with tolerable certainty and correctness. The affinity 
may be traced between most of the words and their 
corresponding Latin ; and it is perfectly clear that the 
variations from the Latin follow r certain definite rules, 
and that the grammatical inflexions were the same as in 
the oldest Latin. A copy of the Table may be found 
in the collection of Orellius, and also in Donaldson's 
" Varronianus." 1 The following are a few specimens 
of words in which a resemblance to the Latin will 
be readily recognized, and also, in some instances, the 
relation of the Oscan to the other ancient languages of 
Italy:— 



Licitud 


Liceto 




Comonei 


Communis 


Multam 


Mulctam 




Per am doium 


Per dolum 


Maim as 


Maximas 




mallom siom 


rualum suum 


Carneis 


Carnes 




Iok — lone 


hoe — hunc 


Senateis 


Senatus 




Pod 


quod 


Pis 


quis 




Valsemon 


Valetudinem 






1 Pp. i 


56—89. 





18 



ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



Hipid 


habeat 


Fust 


fuerit 


Pruhipid 


prsehibeat 


Poizad 


penset (Anglicd, 


Pruhipust 


prsehibuent 




poize). 


Censtur 


censor 


Fuid 


fuit 


Censazet 


censapit 


Tarpinius 


Tarquinius 


Censaum, &c. 


censum, &c. 


Ampus 


Ancus 



To these other well-known words may be added, which 
all philologers allow to be originally Oscan, but which 
have been incorporated with the Latin — such as, for 
example, Brutus, Cascus, Catus, Ecedus, Idus, Porcus, 
Trabea; and names of deities, such as Fides, Terminus, 
Yertumnus, Tors, Flora, Lares, Mamers, Quirinus, &c. 



THE ETRUSCAN LANGUAGE. 

The difficulty and obscurity in which the Etruscan 
language is involved are owing to the nature of the 
inscriptions and monuments which have been discovered. 
Those records, to which reference has already been made 
when speaking of the Umbrian and Sabelio-Oscan, were 
of a ceremonial or legal character ; they therefore con- 
tained connected phrases and sentences, varied modes 
of thought and expression. Monuments such as the 
Eugubine or Bantine Tables contribute not a little 
towards a vocabulary of the languages, and still more 
to a knowledge of their structure and analogies. This, 
however, is not the case with the Etruscan monuments 
of antiquity which have been hitherto discovered. They 
are, indeed, numerous, but they exhibit little variety. 
They are sepulchral records of a complimentary kind, or 
titles inscribed on statues and votive offerings. Hence 
the same brief phraseology continually recurs, and the 
principal portions of the inscriptions are occupied by 
proper names. 

The most important, because the largest, Etruscan 
record which has been hitherto discovered, is one which 



PERUGIAN INSCRIPTION 19 

was found near Perugia, a.d. 1822. 1 This inscription 
contains one hundred and thirty-one words and abbre- 
viations of words, and of these no fewer than thirty- 
eight are proper names. Of the rest, a vast number 
are either frequently repeated, or are etymologically 
connected. These have not proved sufficient to enable 
any philologist (although' many have attempted it) to 
give a satisfactory and trustworthy explanation of its 
contents. 

A comparison of the Perugian with the Eugubine 
inscription shows the existence of similarity between 
some of the words found in both of them • and this is 
exactly what we should a priori expect to result from the 
theory of the Etruscan being a compound of the Pelas- 
gian and Umbrian. In the Perugian inscription, words 
which resemble the Umbrian forms are more numerous 
than those which seem to have an affinity for the Pelas- 
gian. Indeed, the language in which it is written 
appears almost entirely to have lost the Pelasgian ele- 
ment. The same observation may be made with respect 
to the Cortonian inscription : 2 — 

Arses verses Sethlanl tephral ape termnu pisest estu ; i. e. Aver- 
tas ignem Vulcane victimarum carne post terminum piatus esto ; 
or, Avertas ignem Vulcane in cinerem redigens qui apud terminum 
piatus esto. 

Probably, therefore, both these belong to a period at 
which the old Umbrian of the conquered tribes had been 
exercising a long-continued influence in corrupting the 
pure Pelasgian of the conquerors. 

One example of the Etruscan alphabet is extant. It 
was discovered in a tomb at Bomarzo, by Mr. Dennis, 3 
inscribed round the foot of a cup, and probably had been 



1 Micali, Tav. cxx. 2 Orellii Inscr. 1384. 

3 Cities of Etruria, i p. 225. 

c 2 



20 



ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



a present for a child, 
and are as follows : — 



The letters ran from left to right, 



$*f <D V y-£SM -7VVW/ 0%S=/ ^J/7 ' 

ph ch th u t s r s p n mlithhzv eca 

It will be seen from this specimen that the Etruscan 
language was deficient in the letters BTAStHOO. 

The following is a catalogue of those Etruscan words 
which have been handed down to us, together with their 
Latin interpretation. The list is but a meagre one, but 
valuable as containing some which have been admitted 
into the Latin, and as exhibiting many affinities to the 
Pelasgian : — 



iEsar 


Deus 


Gap os 


Currus 


Agalletor 


Puer 


Hister 


Ludio 


Andar 


Boreas 


Iduare 


Dividere 


Anhelos 


Aurora 


Iduius 


Ovis 


Antar 


Aquila 


Itus 


Idus 


Aracos 


Accipiter 


Lsena 


Vestimentum 


Arimos 


ISimia 


Lanista 


Carnifex 


Arse Verse 


Averte ignem 


Lar 


Dominus 


Ataison 


Vitis 


Lucumo 


Princeps 


Burros 


Poculum 


Mantisa 


Additamentum 


Balteus 


) 


Nanos 


Vagabundus 


Oapra 


1 The same as in the 


Nepos 


Luxuriosus 


Cassis 


1 Latin. 


Easena 


Etrusci 


Celer 


Subulo 


Tibicen 


Capys 


Falco 


Slan 


Filius 


Damnus 


Equus 


Sec 


Filia 


Drouna 


Principium 


Bil avil 


Vixit annos 


Falandum 


Coelum 


Toga 


Toga 



The discoveries of General Glalassi and Mr. Dennis at 
the Etruscan city of Cervetri have shown to what an 
extent the Pelasgian element prevailed in the old Etruscan. 
Cervetri Avas the old Caere or Agylla, which was founded 
by Pelasgians, maintained a religious connexion with the 
Greeks as a kindred race, 2 and remained Pelasgian to a 



1 See Etrusc. Alphabet. Lanzi, Saggio di L. E. i. 208. 
2 Herod, i. 167 



ETRUSCAN INSCRIPTIONS. 21 

a late period. 1 In the royal tomb discovered in this place 
the name of Tarqnin — 

occurs no less than thirty-live times. 2 On a little cruet- 
shaped vase, like an ink-bottle, was found inscribed the 
syllables Bi, Ba, Bu, &c, as in a horn-book, and also an 
alphabet in the Pelasgian character. 3 These characters 
are almost identical with the Etruscan. Again, General 
Galassi found here a small black pot, with letters legibly 
scratched, and filled with red paint. 4 Lepsius pronounced 
them to be Pelasgian, divided them into words, and ar- 
ranged them in the following lines, which are evidently 
hexametrical : — 

Mi ni kethu ma mi mathu maram lisiai thipurenai 
Ethe erai sic epana mi nethu nastav helephu, 

Mr. Donaldson 5 has offered some suggestions, with a 
view to explaining this inscription, and has clearly shown 
many close affinities to the Greek ; but there is another 
which he quotes, and which is pronounced by Muller 6 to 
be pure Pelasgian, which even in its Pelasgian form is 
almost Greek : — 

Mi kalairu faius. 

iiyu KaXaipov Fvios. 

It would be impossible in this work to attempt the 
analysis of all the known Etruscan words, and to point 
out their affinities to the Pelasgian, the Greek, or the 
Latin; but a few examples may be given, whilst the 
reader, who wishes to pursue the subject further, is re- 
ferred to the investigations of the learned author of the 
" Varronianus." 

Aifil, age, is evidently from the same root as the Greek 
ait'W, the digamma, which is the characteristic of the 
Pelasgian, as it was of the derivative dialect, the iEolic, 



1 Virg. Mn. viii. 597. 2 Dennis, ii. 41. 3 Ibid. ii. 53. 

4 Ibid. ii. 55. 5 Varron., p. 127. 6 Etrusk. i. p. 451. 



22 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

being inserted between the vowels. Aruns, an agricul- 
turist, contains the root of apow, to plough. Capys, a 
falcon, that of capio, to catch. Cassis (originally capsis), 
that of caput, the head. Lituus, a curved staff, that of 
obliquus. Toga, that of tego, the dress, which was 
originally as much the Etruscan costume as it subse- 
quently became characteristic of the Roman. Lastly, it 
is well known that, whereas the Greeks denoted numbers 
by the letters of the alphabet, the Eomans had a system 
of numeral signs. This was a great improvement. The 
Greek system of notation was clumsy, because in reality 
it only pointed out the order in which each number 
stands. The Eoman notation, on the other hand, repre- 
sented arithmetical quantity, and even the addition and 
subtraction of quantities ; and this elegant contrivance 
the Eomans owed to the Etruscans. Their numerals 
were as follows : — 

I. II. III. IIII. A. AI. All. AIII. IX. X. . . T. T. . . 

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 40. 50. 

© 1) © 

100. 500, 1000. 

This system is identical with the Eoman, for A inverted 
became Y, and T, (D, Jj, and © became respectively L, 
C, D, and CIO, for which M was substituted in later 
times. 

Erom the few examples which have been here given it 
is evident that the Pelasgian element of the Etruscan was 
most influential in the formation of the Latin language, 
as the Pelasgian art and science of that wonderful people 
contributed to the advancement and improvement of the 
Eoman character. 

THE OLD LATIN LANGUAGE. 

The above observations, and the materials out of which 
the old Latin was composed, have prepared the way for 
some illustrations of its structure and character. The 



CHANT OF THE FRATRES ARVALES. 23 

monuments from which all our information is derived are 

few in number : the conflagration of Home destroyed tlie 
majority ; the common accidents of a long series of years 
completed the mischief. Almost the only records which 
remain are laws, ceremonials, epitaphs, and honorary in- 
scriptions. 

An example of the oldest Latin extant is contained in 
the sacred chant of the Fratres Arvales. The inscription 
which embodied this Litany was discovered a.d. 1778, 1 
whilst digging out the foundations of the sacristy of St. 
Peter's at Eome. The monument belongs to the reign 
of Heliogabalus; 2 but although the date is so recent, the 
permanence of religious formulae renders it probable that 
the inscription contains the exact words sung by this 
priesthood in the earliest times. 

The Fratres Arvales were a college of priests, founded, 
according to the tradition, by Eomulus himself. The 
symbolical ensign of their office was a chaplet of ears of 
corn (spicea corona), and their function was to offer prayers 
in solemn dances and processions at the opening of spring 
for plenteous harvests. Their song was chanted in the 
temple with closed doors, accompanied by that peculiar 
dance which was termed the tripudium, from its contain- 
ing three beats. To this rhythm the Saturnian measure 
of the hymn corresponds ; and for this reason each verse 
was thrice repeated. The hymn contains sixteen letters : 
s is sometimes put for r, ei for i, and/> for/ or ph. The 
following is a transcription of it, as given by Orellius, to 
which an interpretation is subjoined : — 



Enos Lases 


juvate. 


Nos Lares 


juvate. 


Us Lares 


help. 


Neve luaerve 


Mariner sins incurrere in pleoris. 


Neve luem 


Mars sinas incurrere plus. 


Nor the pestilence 


Mars permit to invade more. 



1 Schoell. Hist, de Lit. Rom. i. p. 42 ; Orell. Insc. 2270. 

2 Circ. a. d. 218. 



24 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Satur fufere Mars limen Salista berber. 

Satiatus furendo Mars lumen Solis sta fervere. 

Satiated with fury, O Mars the light of the sun stop from burning. 

Semunis alternei advocapit conctos. 

Semihemones alterni ad vos capite cunctos. 
Us half-men in your turns to you take all. 

Enos Marmer juvato. 
Nos Mars juvato. 
Us Mars help. 

Triumpe, triumpe, triumpe, triumpe, triumpe. 
Triumph, &c. 

Of the Salian hymn (Carmen Salkre), another monu- 
ment of ancient Latin, the following fragments, preserved 
by Yarro, 1 are all that remain, with the exception of a 
few isolated words : 

(1.) Cozeulodoizcso, omina vero ad patula coemisse 
Jam cusiones, duonus ceruses dunzianus vevet. 1 

This has been corrected, arranged in the Saturnian 
metre, and translated into Latin by Donaldson' 2 as fol- 
lows : — 

Choroi-aulodos eso, omina enim vero 
Ad patula' ose misse Jani cariones. 
Duonus Cerus esit dunque Janus vevet. 

Choroio-aulodus ero, omina enim vero ad patulas aures 
Miserunt Jani curiones. Bonus Cerus erit donee Janus vivet. 

I will be a flute-player in the chorus, for the priests of Janus have 
sent omens to open ears. Cerus (the Creator) will be propitious so 
long as Janus shall live. 

(2.) Divum empta cante, divum deo supplicante. 
i. e. Deorum impetu canite, deorum deo suppliciter canite. 

Sing by the inspiration of the gods, sing as suppliants to the god 
of gods. 

The Leges Regice are generally considered as furnish- 
ing the next examples, in point of antiquity, of the old 
Latin language ; but there can be little doubt that, 
although they were assumed by the metrical traditions to 
belong to the period of the kings, 3 they belong to a later 



1 De L. L. vii. 26, 27, or vi. 1 — 3. 2 Varronianus, vi. 4. 

3 See ex. gr. Liv. i. 26. 



LAWS OF THE TWELVE TABLES. 



25 



historical period than the laws of the Twelve Tables. 
Some fragments of laws, attributed to Numa and Servius 
Tullius, are preserved by Festus 1 in a restored and cor- 
rected form, and, therefore, it is to be feared that they 
have been modernized in accordance with the orthogra- 
phical rules of a later age. 

One of these laws is quoted by Livy 2 as put in force in 
the trial of the surviving Horatius for the murder of his 
sister when he returned, as the tradition relates, from his 
victory over the Curatii. Another is alluded to by Pliny, 3 
which forbids the sacrificing all fish which have not 
scales ; but they are given in modern Latin, and can only 
be restored to their old form by conjecture. 

We may, therefore, proceed at once to a consideration 
of the Latin of the Twelve Tables, of which fragments 
have been preserved by Cicero, Aulus Grellius, Festus, 
Graius, Ulpian, and others. These fragments are to be 
found collected together in Haubold's " Institutionum 
Juris Eomani privati lineamenta " and Donaldson's " Var- 
ronianus." 4 The laws of the Twelve Tables were engraven 
on tablets of brass, and publicly set up in the Comitium, 
and were first made public in b.c. 44 9. 5 Nor had the 
Eomans any other digested code of laws until the time 
of Justinian. 6 The following are a few examples of the 
words and phrases contained in them : — 



Ni 


nee 


Em 


eum 


Endo jacito 


injicito 


iEvitas 


Eetas 


Fuat 


sit 


Sonticus 


nocens 


Hostis 


Hospes 



Diffensus esto 


differatur 


Se 


sine 


Venom-dint 


venum det 


Estod 


esto 


Escit 


est 


Legassit, &c. 


legaverit. 



The next example of the old Latin is contained in the 
Tiburtine inscription, which was discovered in the six- 



1 S. V. V. Plorare, Occisum, Pellices, Parricidii Quaestores, &c. 
* Lib. i. 26. 3 H. N. xxxii. 2. * Oh. vi. 

5 Dionys. x. 57. 6 Li v. iii. 54, a.d. 



26 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

teenth century at Tivoli, the ancient Tibnr. It came 
into the possession of the Barberini family ; but it was 
afterwards lost, and has never been recovered. Niebuhr 1 
considers (and his conjecture is probably correct) that 
this monument is a Senatus-consultum, belonging to the 
period of the second Samnite war. 2 The inscription is 
given at length in the collection of Grater, 3 and also by 
Niebuhr 4 and Donaldson. 5 The Latin in which it is 
written may be considered almost classical, the variations 
from that of a later age being principally orthographical. 
For example : — 



Tiburtes is written Teiburtes 
Castoris , , Kastorus 

Advertit , , advortit 

Dixistis , , deixsistis 



Publico is written poplieee 
Utile , , oitile 

Inducimus , , indoucimus 

af. 



This document is followed very closely, in point of time, 
by the well-known inscription on the sarcophagus of 
L. Cornelius Scipio 6 Barbatus, and the epitaph on his 
son, 7 which are both written in the old Saturnian metre. 
Scipio Barbatus was the great-grandfather of the con- 
queror of Hannibal, and was consul in a.u.c. 456, the 
first year of the third Samnite war. His sarcophagus 
was found a.d. 1780 in a tomb near the Appian Way, 
whence it was removed to the Vatican. The epitaph is 
as follows : — 

Cornelius Lucius Scipio Barbatus Gnaivod 
Patre prognatus fortis vir sapiensque 
Quoius forma virtutei parisuma fuit 
Consol Censor Aidilis quei fuit apud vos 
Taurasia Cisauna Samnio cepit 
Subigit orane Loucana opsidesque abdoucit. 

" Cornelius L. Scipio Barbatus, son of Cnseus, a brave 
and wise man, whose beauty was equal to his virtue. He 
was amongst you Consul, Censor, iEdile. He took Tau- 



1 Nieb. E. H. iii. 264. 2 a. u. c. 428—50, Arnold ; 423—44, Niebuhr. 

3 Page 499. 4 Rom. Hist. 5 Varron. vi. 20. 6 Orell No. 550. 

7 Ibid. No. 552. Meyer's Anth. Nos. 1, 2 ; where see also No. 5. 



EPITAPH OF LUCIUS SCIPIO. 27 

rasia, Cisauna, and Samnium ; he subjugated all Lucania, 
and led away hostages/' 

His son was Consul a.u.c. 49 5. x The following in- 
scription is on a slab which was found near the Porta 
Capona. The title is painted red (rubricatus) : — 

L. Cornelio L. F. Scipio, Aidiles, Consol, Cesor. 

Hone oino ploirume cosentiunt K. 

Duonoro optinio fuise viro 

Luciom Scipionem. Filios Barbati 

Consol Censor Aidiles hie fuet 

Hie cepit Corsica Aleria que urbe 

Dedet tempestatebus aide mereto. 

" Romans for the most part agree, that this one man, 
Lucius Scipio, w^as the best of good men. He was the 
son of Barbatus, Consul, Censor, iEdile. He took Corsica 
and the city Aleria. He dedicated a temple to the 
Storms as a just return/' 

It is not a little remarkable that the style of this 
epitaph is more archaic than that of the preceding. 

The consul of the year B.C. 260 was C. Duilius, who in 
that year gained his celebrated naval victory over the 
Carthaginians; the inscription, therefore, engraved on 
the pedestal of the Columna Eostrata, which was erected 
in commemoration of that event, may be considered as a 
contemporary monument of the language. 2 Some altera- 
tions were probably made in its orthography at a period 
subsequent to its erection, for it was rent asunder from 
top to bottom by lightning a.u.c. 580, 3 and is supposed 
not to have been repaired until the reign of Augustus, 
for the restoration of a temple built by Duilius was begun 
by that emperor and completed by Tiberius. 4 The prin- 
cipal peculiarities to be observed in this inscription are, 
that the ablatives singular end in d, as in the words 
Siceliad, obsidioned; c is put for g, as in macistratos, 



'B.C. 259. a Orellius, No. 549. 3 Liv. xlii. 20. 

4 Tac. Ann. ii. 49. 



28 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

leciones; e for i, as in navebos, ornavet; o for u, as in 
Duilios, aurom; classes, nummi, &c, are spelt clases, 
numei, and quinqueremos, triremos, quinresmos, triesmos. 
This monument was discovered a.d. 1565, in a very im- 
perfect state, but its numerous lacunce were supplied by 
Grrotefend. 

About sixty years after the date of this epitaph, 1 the Se- 
natus-consultum, respecting the Bacchanals, was passed. 2 
This monument was discovered a.d. 1692, in the Cala- 
brian village of Terra di Feriolo, and is now preserved in 
the Imperial Museum of Vienna. 3 

There is scarcely any difference between the Latinity 
of this inscription and that of the classical period except 
in the orthography and some of the grammatical inflex- 
ions. The expressions are in accordance with the usage 
of good authors, and the construction is not without 
elegance. Nor is this to be wondered at when it is re- 
membered that, at the period when this decree was pub- 
lished, Eome already possessed a written literature. 
Ennius was now known as a poet and an historian, and 
many of the comedies of Plautus had been acted on the 
public stage. 

Having thus enumerated the existing monuments of 
the old Eoman language and its constituent elements, it 
remains to compare the Latin and Greek alphabets, for 
the purpose of exhibiting the variations which the Latin 
letters have severally undergone. 

The letters then may be arranged according to the 
following classification : — 

r Soft P CKorQ, T. 

1 Mutes { Medial B G D. 

{ Aspirates F (V) H — 

Liquids- - - L, M, N, R. 
Sibilants - - S, X. 
Vowels - - - - - A, E, I, 0, U. 



1 u. c. 568 ; B. c. 186. 2 Livy, xxxix. 18. 3 Schoell, i. 52. 



LATIN AND GREEK ALPHABETS. 29 

Owing to the relation which subsists between P, B, 
and F or V, as the soft medial and aspirated pronuncia- 
tion of the same letters, P and B, as well as P and V, in 
Latin, are the representatives or equivalents of the Greek 
F sound (cp and F), and V also sometimes stands in the 
place of ft. For example (1), the Latin fama, few, 
fufjio, vir, &c, correspond to the Greek ^^rj, $epw, 
(pevyco (7 r )"Ap)/9. (2). Nebula, caput, albus, ambo, to 
vecpeX)}, KexpaXi), aXcpo?, a/j.(j)w. Similarly, duonus and 
duellum become bonus and bellum; the transition being 
from du to a sound like the English w, thence to v, and 
lastly to b. The old Latin c was used as the representa- 
tive of its corresponding medial G, as well as K; for 
example, magistratus, legiones, Carthaginienses were 
written on the Columna Hostrata, leciones, macistratus, 
Cartacinienses. The representative of the Greek k was 
c ; thus caput stands for icecpakf} : the sound qu also, 
as might be expected, from its answering to the Greek 
koppa (Q), and the Hebrew koph (p), had undoubtedly in 
the old Latin the same sound as C or K, and, therefore, 
quatio becomes, in composition, cutio; and quojus, quoi, 
quolonia become, in classical Latin, cujus, cui, colonia. 
This pronunciation has descended to the modern French 
language, although it has become lost in the Italian. A 
passage from the " Aulularia " 1 of Plautus illustrates this 
assertion, and Quintilian 2 also bears testimony to the 
existence of the same pronunciation in the time of 
Cicero. 

The aspirate H is in Latin the representative of the 
Greek X, as, for example, hiems, hortus, and liumi corre- 
spond to yel\kuv, yopios, %a/xa«, whilst the third Greek 
aspirated mute G becomes a tenuis in the mouths of the 
early Latins, as in Cartaginienses, and the h sound was 



Vcr. 276. 2 Lib. vi. 3, 47. 



30 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

afterwards restored when Greek exercised an influence 
over the language as well as the literature of Rome. 

The absence of the th sound in the old Latin is com- 
pensated for in a variety of ways ; sometimes "by an /, as 
fera, fores, for Orjp aud 6vpa. 

The interchanges which take place between the T and 
D, and the liquids L, N, R, can be accounted for on the 
grammatical principle, 1 which is so constantly exempli- 
fied in the literal changes of the Semitic languages, that 
letters articulated by the same organ are frequently put 
one for the other. Now D, T, L, N are all palatals, and 
in the pronunciation of E also some use is made of the 
palate. Hence we find a commutation of r and n in 
hwpov, donum ; cereus, emeus ; of t and I in OwprjZ and 
lorica ; d and I in olfacio and odere facio, Ulysses and 
Odv(T<jevs ; r and d in auris and audio, arfuise, and 
adfuisse. 

To the remaining liquid, m, little value seems to have 
been attached in Latin. In verse it was elided before a 
vowel ; in verbs it was universally omitted from the first 
person of the present tense, although it was originally its 
characteristic, and was only retained in sum and inquam : 
it was also omitted in other words, as omne for omnem ; 2 
and Cato the Censor was hi the habit of putting dice 
and facie for dicam (or dicem) and faciam (faciem). 

As the Roman x was nothing more than a double 
letter compounded of g or c and s, as rego, regsi, rexi ; 
dico, dicsi, dixi, the only consonant now remaining for 
consideration is the sibilant s. The principal position 
which it occupies in Latin is as corresponding to the 
aspirate in Greek words derived from the same Pelasgic 
roots. Thus m, e£, v\iy &c, are represented by sus, 
sex, silva. This may possibly be accounted for by the 



1 See Bythner's Lyra Prophet. 2 See epitaph on L. C. Scipio. 



CHANGE IN VOWELS AM) DIPHTHONGS. 31 

fact that S is in reality a very powerful aspirate. It is 
only necessary to try the experiment, in order to prove 
that a strong expiration produces a hissing sound. Those 
words which in classical Greek are written without an 
aspirate, such as el, ava%, &c, which, nevertheless, have an 
s in Latin, as si, senex, &c., may possibly have been at one 
period pronounced with the stronger breathing. The* 
most remarkable change, however, which has taken place 
with respect to this letter, in the transition from the old 
to the classical Latin, is the substitution of r for s. Thus 
Fusius, Pajrisius, eso, arbos, &c, become Furius, Papi- 
rius, ero 9 arbor, &c. 

The following table exhibits the principal changes un- 
dergone by the vowels and diphthongs : — 

In modern Latin. In ancient Latin. 

E was represented by i, sometimes u, as luci, condumnari, 

I , , u, ei, e, o optume, ncminus, preivatus, 

dedit, senatuos. 
U , , oi, cm, o cmc-iuS; ploimme, douco, 

hone. 
M , , ai Aidiles. 

CE , , oi proilium. 

The vowels were sometimes doubled, asleegi, lmici, haace. 1 

In the grammatical inflexions, the principal difference 
between the old and the new Latin is, that in nouns the 
old forms were longer, and assumed their modern form by 
a process of contraction, and that the ablative ended in d, 
as Gnaivod, sententiad ; consequently the adverbial termi- 
nation was the same as suprad, bonod, malod. The same 
termination appears in the form of tod in the singular 
number of the imperative mood. 



See Bant. Table. 



32 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER III. 



SATURNIAN METRE — OPINIONS RESPECTING ITS ORIGIN — EARLY 
EXAMPLES OF THIS METRE — SATURNIAN BALLADS IN LIVY — 
STRUCTURE OF THE VERSE— INSTANCES OF RHYTHMICAL POETRY. 

The origin and progress of the Roman language haye 
now been briefly traced, by the help of existing monu- 
ments, from the earliest dawn of its existence, when the 
fusion of its discordant elements was so incomplete as to 
be scarcely intelligible, to the period when even in the 
unadorned form of public records it began to assume a 
classical shape. But such an analysis will not be com- 
plete without some account of the verse in which the 
earliest national poetry was composed. 

The oldest measure used by the Latin poets was the 
Saturnian. According to Hermann, 1 there is no doubt 
that it was derived from the Etruscans, and that long 
before the fountains of Greek literature were opened, the 
strains of the Italian bards flowed in this metre, until 
Ennius introduced the heroic hexameter. The gramma- 
rian Diomedes 2 attributed the invention of it to Nsevius, 
and seems to imply that the Roman poet derived the idea 
from the Greeks, for his theory is, that he formed the 
verse by adding a syllable to the Iambic trimeter. Te- 
rentianus Maurus, as well as Atilius, professed to find 



1 Elem. Doc. Met. iii. 9. 2 P. 212. 



EARLT EXAMPLES OF SATURNIANS. 33 

verses oi' this kind in the tragedies of Euripides and the 
odes of CaUimachus, and Servius and Censorinus attempted 
to analyse the Saturnian according to the strict rules of 
(hook prosody; hut they were obliged to permit every 
conceivable license, and to make Eoman rudeness an ex- 
cuse for a violation of those rules which they themselves 
had arbitrarily imposed. The opinion of Bentley was, that 
it was a Greek metre introduced into Italy by Nsevius. 1 
The only argument in favour of the latter theory is the 
fact that the Saturnian is found amongst the verses of 
Archilochus ; but many circumstances, which shall here- 
after be pointed out, combine to make it far more probable 
that the use of it by the Greek poet is an accidental coin- 
cidence than that the old Eoman bards copied it from him. 
Whatever be its history, there can be no doubt that, if it 
did not originate in Italy, its rhythm in very early times 
recommended itself to the Italian ear, and became the 
recognized vehicle of their national poetry. A rude 
resemblance of it is discernible in the Eugubine tables ; 
it had obtained a more advanced degree of perfection 
in the Arvalian chants, and the axamenta 2 or Salian 
hymns. Examples of it are found in fragments of 
Eoman laws, which Livy 3 refers to the reign of Tullus 
Hostilius, and Cicero 4 to that of Tarquinius Priscus. The 
epitaphs of the Scipios are in fact Saturnian nseniae. 
Ennius, whose era was sufficiently early for him to know 
that Naevius, instead of being the inventor of a new 
verse, or the introducer of a Greek one, followed the ex- 
ample of his predecessors, finds fault with the antiquated 
rudeness of his Saturnians. 

Scripsere alii rem 
Versibus quos olim Fauni Vatesque canebant 
Quom neque Musarum scopulos quisquam superarat. 
Nee dicti studiosus erat. 



1 Ep. Phal. xi. 

8 The term axamenta is derived from the old Latin word axo } to name. 

* Lib. i. 26. 4 Pro Rab. 4, 13. 

D 



34 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Some in such verses wrote, 
As sung the Fauns and Bards in olden times, 
When none had scaled the Muses' rocky heights 
Or studied graceful diction. 

Had the Saturnian been introduced from Greece, 
Ennius would not have denied to it the inspiration of 
the Muses, or have doubted that its birthplace was on 
the rocky peaks of Parnassus, nor would his ear, attuned 
to the varied melody of Greek poetry, have been un- 
conscious of its simple and natural rhythm, and have 
entirely rejected it for the more ponderous and grandi- 
loquent hexameter. The truth is, the taste which was 
formed by the study of Greek letters created a pre- 
judice against the old national verse. As it was not 
Greek, it was pronounced rough and unmusical, and was 
exploded as old-fashioned. The well-known passage of 
Horace represents the prevailing feeling, although he 
says that the Saturnian remained long after the intro- 
duction of the hexameter, and that, even in his own day, 
when Yirgil had brought the Latin hexameter to the 
highest degree of perfection, a few traces of that old 
long-lost poetry, which Cicero 1 wished for back again, 
might still be discovered : — 

Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes 
Intulit agresti Latio. Sic horridus ille 
Defluxit numerus Saturnius, et grave virus 
Munditise pepulere : sed in longum tamen 3Bvum 
Manserunt, hodieque manent vestigia ruris. 

JSp. II., ii. 156. 

Some passages of Livy bear evident marks of having 
been originally portions of Saturnian ballads, although the 
historian has mutilated the metre by the process of 
translating them into more modern Latin. The pro- 
phetic warning of C. Marcius 2 has been thus restored by 
Hermann with but slight alteration of the words of 
Livy : 

1 Brutus, xix. i Liv. xxv. 12. 



OLD LAYS RESTORED BY HERMANN. 35 

Amnen, Trojugena, Cannam fugc, nc te alienigenee 
CogAnt in c&mpo Diomed6i mantis consSrere ; 

Sed nee eredes tu mihi, donee complessis sangni 
Campam, miliaquc multa occisa tna tetulerit 
[a amnia in portum magnum ex terra frugifera. 
Piscibus avibus ferisque qua3 incolunt terras, eis 
Fuat esea carnis tua ; ita Juppiter mihi fatus. 

The oraclo which tradition recorded as having been 
brought from Delphi respecting the waters of the Alban 
lake 1 was evidently embodied in a Satnrnian poem, pro- 
bably the composition of the same Marcius, or one of his 
contemporaries, such as Fabins Pictor, Cincius Ali- 
meiitus, or AciHus. This lay has also been conjecturally 
restored by Hermann. 

Romane aquam Albanam lacu cave contineri, 
Cave in mare immanare suopte flumine siris ; 
Missam manu per agros rigassis, dissipatam 
Rivis extinxis, turn tu insistito hostium audax 
Muris mem or, quam per tot annos circum obsides 
Urbem, ex ea tibi his, quse nunc panduntur fatis, 
Victoriam datam ; bello perfecto donum 
Amplum ad mea victor templa portato ; sacra patria 
Nee curata instaurato, utique adsolitum, facito. 

In later times Livins Andronicus translated the whole 
Odyssey into Saturnians, and Nsevius wrote in the same 
metre a poem consisting of seven books, the snbject of 
which was the first Pnnic war. Detached fragments of 
both these have been preserved by Anhis Grellius, Priscian, 
Pestus, and others, which have been collected together by 
Hermann. 2 

The structure of the Saturnian is very simple, and its 
rhythmical arrangement is found in the poetry of every 
age and country. Macaulay 3 quotes the following Sa- 
turnians from the poem of the Cid and from the Nibe- 
hmgen-Liecl — 

Estas nuevas a mio f Cid eran venidas 
A mi lo dian ; a ti | dan las orejadas. 



Liv. v. 16. 2 Elem. Doc. Metr. iii. 9. 

3 Lays of Rome, Preface, p. 19. 

D 2 



36 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Man mohte mlchel wunder f von Sifride sagen 
"Wa ich den kunic vinde j das sol man mir sagen. 

He adds also, as an example of a perfect Saturnian, the 
following line from the well-known nursery song — 

The queen was In her parlour | eating bread and honey. 

It was the metre naturally adapted to the national 
mode of dancing, in which each alternate step strongly 
marked the time, 1 and the rhythmical beat was repeated 
in a series of three bars, which gave to the dance the 
appellation of tripudium. 

The Saturnian consists of two parts, each containing 
three feet, which fall upon the ear with the same effect 
as Grreek trochees. The whole is preceded by a syllable 
in thesis technically called an anacrusis. For example — 

Sum | mas o|p6s qui | regum || regi|as re|fregit || 

The metre in its original form was perfectly independent 
of the rules of Greek prosody, its only essential requisite 
was the beat or ictus on the alternate syllable or its re- 
presentative. The only law to regulate the stress was 
that of the common popular pronunciation. In fact, 
stress occupied the place of quantity. Two or three syl- 
lables, which, according to the rules of prosody would be 
long by position, might be slurred over or pronounced 
rapidly in the time of one, as in the following line : — 

Amnem Trojtigena Cannam [ ftige ne te alienigenae. 

Thus it is clear that the principles which regulated it 
were those of modern versification, without any of the 
niceties and delicacies of Grreek quantity. 

The anacrusis resembles the introductory note to a 
musical air, and does not interfere with the essential 
quality of the verse, namely, the three beats twice re- 
peated, any more than it does in English poems, in which 



Alterno terrain quatiunt pede. — Ilor. Od. 



INSTANCES Or RHYTHMICAL VERSE. 37 

octosyllabic linos, having the stress on the even places, 
are intermingled with verses of seven syllables, as in the 
following passage of Milton's L 5 Allegro : — 

Come and trip it as you go 

On the light fantastic toe, 

And in thy right hand lead with thee 

The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty ; 

And if I give thee honour due, 

Mirth, admit me of thy crew. 

It is remarkable that in the degenerate periods of 
Latin literature, there was a return to the same old 
rhythmical principles which gave birth to the Saturnian 
verse : ictus was again substituted for quantity, and the 
Greek rules of prosody were neglected for a rhythm cou- 
nting of alternate beats, which pervades most modern 
poetry. 

The empire had become so extensive, that the taste ot 
the people, especially of the provincials, was no longer 
regulated by that of the capital, and emphasis and accent 
became, instead of metrical quantity, the general rule of 
pronunciation. This was the origin of rhythmical poetry. 
Traces of it may be found as early as the satirical verses 
of Suetonius or J. Caesar. 

It is the metre of the little jeu d'esprit addressed by 
the emperor Hadrian to Floras — * 

Ego nolo Florus esse 
Ambulare per tabernas 
Latitare per popinas 
Culices pati rotundos ; 

and also of the historian's repartee — 

Ego nolo Csesar esse 
Ambulare per Britannos 
Scythicas pati pruinas. 

The simple grandeur of such strains as — 

Dies ira3, dies ilia, 

Solvet sseclum in favilla, &c. 

' See Meyer, Airfehol. Lat. 207, 212. 



38 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

and other monkish hymns, go far to rescue the old 
Saturnian from the charge of ruggedness and rusticity 
ascribed to it by Horace and others, whose taste was 
formed by Greek poetry, and whose fastidious ears could 
not brook any harmony but that which had been con- 
secrated to the outpourings of Greek genius. 

From this species of verse, which probably prevailed 
among the natives of Provence (the Eoman Provincia) 
the Troubadours derived the metre of then" ballad poetry, 
and thence introduced it into the rest of Europe. But 
whatever phases the external form of ancient poetry 
underwent, the classical writers both of Greece and 
Rome eschewed rhyme. Even to a modern ear the 
beautiful effect of the ancient metres is entirely destroyed 
by it. It was a false taste and a less refined ear which 
could accept it as a compensation for the imperfections 
of prosody. 

Although rhyme was introduced as an embellishment 
of verses framed on the principle of ictus, and not of 
quantity, at a very early period of Christian Latin litera- 
ture, it is not quite certain when it came to be added as 
a new difficulty to the metres of classical antiquity. It 
is recorded by Gray 1 that when the children educated in 
the monastery of St. Gall addressed a Bishop of Con- 
stance on his first visitation with expostulatory orations, 
the younger ones recited the following doggrel rhymes : — 

Quid tibi fecinius tale ut nobis facias male 
Appellamus regem quia nostram fecimus legem. 

The elder and more advanced students spoke in rhyming 
hexameters :— 

Non nobis pia spes fuerat cum sis novus hospes 
Ut vetus in pejus transvertere tute velis jus. 



1 Gray's Works, ii. 30 — 54. 



( 31) ) 



CHAPTER IV. 

THREE PERIODS OF ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE — ITS ELEMENTS 
RUDE — ROMAN RELIGION — ETRUSCAN INFLUENCE — EARLY HIS- 
TORICAL MONUMENTS — FESCENNLNE VERSES — FABUL^E ATELLAN^ 
— INTRODUCTION OF STAGE PLAYERS — DERP7ATI0N OF SATIRE. 

The era during which Soman classical literature com- 
menced, arrived at perfection, and declined, may be con- 
veniently divided into three periods. The first of these 
embraces its rise and progress, such traces as are dis- 
coverable of oral and traditional compositions, the rude 
elements of the drama, the introduction of Greek litera- 
ture, and the cultivation of the national taste in accord- 
ance with this model, the infancy of eloquence, and the 
construction and perfection of comedy. 

To this period the first &ve centuries of the republic 
may be considered as introductory ; the groundwork and 
foundation were then being gradually laid on which the 
superstructure was built up; for, properly speaking, 
Rome had no literature until the conclusion of the first 
Punic war. 1 

Independently therefore of these 500 years, this period 
consists of 160 years, extending from the time when 
Livius Andronicus flourished 2 to the first appearance of 
Cicero in public life. 3 

The seeond period ends with the death of Augustus. 4 

1 a. u. c. 513 ; B. c. 241. 2 B. c. 240 ; a. u. c. 514. 

3 b. c. 81 ; a. u. c. 673. 4 a. d. 14. 



40 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE, 

It comprehends the age of which Cicero is the repre- 
sentative as the most accomplished orator, philosopher, 
and prose writer of his times, as well as that of Augustus, 
which is commonly called the golden age of Latin 
poetry. 

The third and last period of Eoman classical literature 
terminates with the death of Hadrian. 1 Notwithstand- 
ing the numerous excellencies which will be seen to dis- 
tinguish the literature of this period, its decline had 
evidently commenced. It missed the patronage of Au- 
gustus and his refined court, and was chilled by the 
baneful influence of his tyrannical successors. As the 
age of Augustus has been distinguished by the epithet 
" golden," so the succeeding period has been, on account 
of its comparative inferiority, designated as " the silver 
age." 

The Eomans, like all other nations, had oral poetical 
compositions before they possessed any written literature. 
Cicero, in three places, 2 speaks of the banquet being 
enlivened by the songs of bards, in which the exploits 
of heroes were recited and celebrated. By these lays 
national pride and family vanity were gratified, and the 
anecdotes thus preserved by memory furnished the 
sources of early legendary history. 

But these lays and legends must not be compared to 
those of Greece, which had probably taken an epic form 
long before they furnished the groundwork of the Iliad 
and the Odyssey. In Boman tradition there are no 
traces of elevated genius or poetical inspiration. The 
religious sentiment was the fertile source of Greek fancy, 
which gave a supernatural glory to the effusions of the 
bard, painted men as heroes, and heroes as deities ; and, 
whilst it was the natural growth of the Greek intellect, 
twined itself round the affections of the whole people. 



A. D. 138. * Brut. 19 ; Tusc. Dis. i. 2 ; iv. 2. 



RUDE ELEMENTS OF ROMAN LITERATURE. 41 

Roman religion was a ceremonial for the priests, not for 
the people ; and its poetry was merely formula? in verse, 
and soared no higher than the semi-barbarous ejaculations 
of the Salian priests or the Arvalian brotherhood. 
Fabulous legends doubtless formed the groundwork of 
history, and therefore probably constituted the festive 
entertainments to which Cicero alludes ; but they were 
rude and simple, and the narratives founded upon them, 
which are embodied in the pages of Livy and others, 
are as much improved by the embellishments of the 
historian, as these in their turn have been expanded by 
the poetic talent of Macaulay. 

It is scarcely possible to conceive that the uncouth 
literature which was contemporary with such rude relics 
as have come down to modern times should have dis- 
played a higher degree of imaginative power. A few 
simple descriptive lines, one or two animating and heart- 
stirring sentiments, and no more, would be tolerated as 
an interruption to the grosser pleasures of the table 
amongst a rude and boisterous people. The Eomans 
were men of actions, not of w r ords ; their intellect, though 
vigorous, was essentially of a practical character : it was 
such as to form warriors, statesmen, jurists, orators, but 
not poets, in the highest sense of the word, i. e. if by 
poetic talent is meant the creative faculty of the imagina- 
tion. The Eoman mind possessed the germs of those 
faculties which admit of cultivation and improvement, 
such as taste and genius, and the appreciation of the 
beautiful, and their endowments rendered them capable 
of attaining literary excellence ; it did not possess the 
natural gifts of fancy and imagination, wdiich were part 
and parcel of the Greek mind, and which made them in a 
state of infancy, almost of barbarism, a poetical people. 

With the Eomans literature was not of spontaneous 
growth ; it was the result of external influence. It is 
impossible to fix the period at which they first became 



42 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

subject to this influence, but it is clear that in everything 
mental and spiritual their neighbours the Etruscans were 
their teachers. The influence exercised by this remark- 
able people was not only religious, but moral : its primary 
object was discipline, its secondary one refinement. If it 
cultivated the intellectual powers, it was with a view to 
disciplining the moral faculties. To this pure culture 
the old Eoman character owed its vigour, its honesty, its 
incorruptible sternness, and those virtues which are 
summed up in the comprehensive and truly Eoman 
word " gravitas." History proves that these qualities 
had a real existence — that they were not the mere 
ideal phantasies of those who loved to praise times gone 
by. The error into which those fell who mourned over 
the loss of the old Eoman discipline, and lamented the 
degeneracy of their own times, was, that they attributed 
this degeneracy to the onward march of refinement and 
civilization, and not to the accidental circumstance that 
this march was accompanied by profligacy and effemi- 
nacy, and that the race which was the dispensers of these 
blessings was a corrupt and degenerate one. They could 
not separate the causes and the effects ; they did not see 
that Eome was intellectually advanced by Greek litera- 
ture, but that unfortunately it was degraded at the same 
time by Greek profligacy. 

For centuries the Eoman mind was imbued with 
Etruscan literature ; and Livy 1 asserts that, just as Greek 
was in his own day, it continued to be the instrument of 
Eoman education during ^.Ye centuries after the founda- 
tion of the city. 

The tendency of the Eoman mind was essentially 
utilitarian. Even Cicero, with all his varied accomplish- 
ments, will recognise but one end and object of all study, 
namely, those sciences which will render a man useful 



Lib. ix. 36. 



EARLIEST LITERATURE HISTORICAL. 43 

to his country : — " Quid esse igitur censes discenduni 
nobis ? . . . Eas artes qua3 efficiunt ut usni civitati 
sinms ; id enim esse prseclarissinmm sapientise mnnus 
maximumquo virtutis vel documentum vel officium pnto." 1 
We must, therefore, expect to find the law of literary de- 
velopment modified in accordance with this ruling prin- 
ciple. From the very beginning, the final cause of 
Roman literature will be found to have been a view 
to utility, and not the satisfaction of an impulsive feel- 
ing. 

In other nations poetry has been the first spontaneous 
production. With the Eomans the first literary effort 
was history. But their early history consisted simply 
of annals and memorials — records of facts, not of ideas or 
sentiments. It was calculated to form a storehouse of 
valuable materials for future ages, but it had no impress 
of genius or thought; its merits were truth and accuracy ; 
its very facts were often frivolous and unimportant, neither 
rendered interesting as narratives, nor illustrated by re- 
flections. These original documents were elements of 
literature rather than deserving the name of literature 
itself — antiquarian rather than historical. The earliest 
records of this kind were the Libri Lintei — manu- 
scripts written on rolls of linen cloth, to which Livy 
refers as containing the first treaty between Borne and 
Carthage, and the truce made with Ardea and Grabii. 2 
To these may be added the Annates Maximi, or Com- 
mentarii Pontificiim, of the minute accuracy of which, the 
following account is given by Servius. 3 " Every year the 
chief pontiff inscribed on a white tablet, at the head of 
which were the names of the consuls and other magis- 
trates, a daily record of all memorable events both at 



] De Hep. i. 20. 2 Lib. iv. 7, 13, 20. 

'■'■ In Virg. Ma. i. 372. See also Cic. Or. ii. 12 ; and Quinct. Ins. Or 



44 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

home and abroad. These commentaries or registers were 
afterwards collected into eighty books which were entitled 
by their authors Annates Maximi" 

Similar notes of the year were kept regularly from the 
earliest periods by the civil magistrates, and are spoken 
of by Latin authors under the titles of Commentarii Con- 
sulares, Libri Prcetorum, and Tabulce Censorice. All these 
records, however, which were anterior to the capture of 
Eome by the Gauls, perished in the conflagration of the 
city. 

Each patrician house, also, had its private family 
history, and the laudatory orations said to have been 
recited at the funerals of illustrious members, were care- 
rally preserved, as adorning and illustrating their nobility ; 
but this heraldic literature obscured instead of throwing 
a light upon history : it was filled with false triumphs, 
imaginary consulships, and forged genealogies. 1 

The earliest attempt at poetry, or rather versification, 
for it was simply the outward form and not the inward 
spirit winch the rude inhabitants of Latium attained, 
was satire in somewhat of a dramatic form. The Fes- 
■cennine songs were metrical, for the accompaniments of 
music and dancing necessarily subjected their extem- 
poraneous effusions to the restrictions of a rude measure. 
Like the first theatrical exhibitions of the Greeks, they 
had then origin, not in towns, but amongst the rural 
population. They were not, like Greek tragedy, per- 
formed in honour of a deity, nor did they form a portion 
of a religious ceremonial. Still, however, they were the 
accompaniment of it, the pastime of the village festival. 
Beligion was the excuse for the holiday sport, and amuse- 
ment its natural occupation. At first they were inno- 
cent and gay, their mirth overflowed in boisterous but 
good-humoured repartee; but liberty at length degene- 



Cic. Brut. 16. 



PESCENNINE VERSES. 45 

rated into license, and gave birth to malicious and libel- 
lous attacks on persons of irreproachable character. 1 As 
the licentiousness of Greek comedy provoked the inter- 
ference of the legislature, so the laws of the Twelve 
Tables forbade the personalities of the Fescennine verses. 

This infancy of song illustrates the character of the 
Romans in its rudest and coarsest form. They loved 
strife, both bodily and mental: with them the highest 
■ of the intellect was in legal conflict and po- 
litical debate ; and, on the same principle, the pleasure 
which the spectators in the rural theatre derived from 
this species of attack and defence, approached somewhat 
nearly to the enthusiasm with which they would have 
witnessed an exhibition of gladiatorial skill. The rustic 
delighted in the strife of words as he would in the wrest- 
ling-matches which also formed a portion of his day's 
sports, and thus early displayed that taste, which, in 
more polished ages, and in the hands of cultivated poets, 
was developed in the sharp cutting wit, the lively but 
piercing points of Eoman satire. 

The Fescennine verses show that the Eomans possessed 
a natural aptitude for satire. The pleasure derived from 
this species of writing, as well as the moral influence ex- 
ercised by it, depends not upon an esthetic appreciation 
of the beautiful, but on a high sense of moral duty; and 
such a sense displays itself in a stern and indignant ab- 
horrence of vice rather than a disposition to be attracted 
by the charms and loveliness of virtue. The Eomans 
were a stern, not an aesthetic people, consequently satire 
is the most original of all Eoman literature, and the 
perfect and polished form which it afterwards assumed 
was entirely their own. They did, indeed, afterwards 
acutely observe anl readily seize upon those parts of 
Greek literature which were subservient to this end, and 



Hor. Ep. II. i. 139, &c. 



46 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

hence Lucilius, the founder of Eoman satire, eagerly 
adopted the models and materials which Greek comedy 
placed at his disposal, and thus became, as Horace 1 writes, 
a disciple of Eupolis, Cratimis, and Aristophanes. 

So permanent was the popularity of these entertain- 
ments that they even survived the introduction of Greek 
letters, and received a polish and refinement from the 
change which then took place in the spirit of the national 
poetry. 2 It has been said, that in these rude elements of 
the drama, Etruria was the first teacher of Latium, and 
that the epithet, Fescennine, perpetuates the name of an 
Etrurian village, Fescennia, from which the amusement 
derived its origin ; but Niebuhr has shown that Fescennia 
was not an Etruscan village, and, therefore, that this 
etymology is untenable. 

The most probable etymology of the word Fescennine 
is one given by Eestus. 3 Fascinum was the Greek 
Phallus, the emblem of fertility ; and as the origin of 
Greek comedy was derived from the rustic Phallic 
songs, so he considers that the same ceremonial may be, 
in some way, connected with the Fescennine verses. If 
this be the true account, the Etruscans furnished the 
spectacle — all that which addresses itself to the eye, 
whilst the habits of Italian rural life supplied the sar- 
castic humour and ready extemporaneous gibe, which are 
the essence of the true comic ; and these combined ele- 
ments having migrated from the country to the capital, 
and being enthusiastically adopted by young men of 
more refined taste and more liberal education, afterwards 
paved the way for the introduction and adaptation of 
Greek comedy. 

If in these improvisatory dialogues may be discerned 



1 Sermon, i. 4, 6. 

3 Virg. Georg. II. 385 ; Tibull. II. i. 55 ; Catull. 61, 27, 

3 Sub voc. 



FA nil, M ATELLAN.E. 47 

the germ of the Roman Comic Drama, the next advance 
in point of art must be attributed to the Oscans. Their 
quasi-dramatic entertainments were most popular amongst 
the Italian nations. They represented in broad carica- 
ture national peculiarities : the language of the dialogue 
was, of course, originally Oscan, the characters of the 
drama were Oscan likewise. 1 The principal one was 
called Macchus, whose part was that of the Clown in the 
modern pantomime. Another was termed Bucco, who 
was a kind of Pantaloon, or charlatan. Much of the 
wit consisted in practical jokes like that of the Italian 
Polichinello. These entertainments were sometimes 
called Ludi Osci, but they are more commonly known 
by the title of Fabula? Atellanse, from Aderla, 2 or, as 
the Eomans pronounced it, Atella, a town in Campania, 
where they were very popular, or perhaps first performed. 
After their introduction at Borne they underwent great 
modifications and received important improvements. They 
lost their native rusticity; their satire was good-natured; 
their jests were seemly, and kept in check by the laws of 
good taste, and were free from scurrility or obscenity. 3 
They seem in later times to have been divided, like 
comedies, into five acts, with exodia, 4 i. e. farcical inter- 
ludes in verse interspersed between them. Nor were 
they acted by the common professional performers. The 
Atellan actors 5 formed a peculiar class ; they were not 
considered infamous, nor were they excluded from the 
tribes, but enjoyed the privilege of immunity from mili- 
tary service. Even a private Eoman citizen might take 
a part in them without disgrace or disfranchisement, 
although these were the social penalties imposed upon 



1 Bernkard-y's Grundriss, 379 ; Diomedes, Gr. iii. 487 ; Val. Max. ii. 4 ; 
Festus v. person, fab. 

- Now St. Arpino. 3 Cic. Ep. ad Pap. 

1 Juv. Sat. iii. 172. 5 V. Schlegel, lect. viii. 



48 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the regular histrio. The Fabube Atellanse introduced 
thus early remained in favour for centuries. The dic- 
tator Sylla is said to have amused his leisure hours in 
writing them; and Suetonius bears testimony to their 
having been a popular amusement under the empire. 

As early, however, as the close of the fourth century, 
the drama took a more artificial form. In the consul- 
ship of C. Sulpicius Peticus and C. Licinius Stolo, 1 a 
pestilence devastated Rome. In order to deprecate the 
anger of the gods, a solemn lectisternium was proclaimed ; 
couches of marble were prepared, with cushions and 
coverlids of tapestry, on which were placed the statues 
of the deities in a reclining posture. Before them were 
placed well-spread tables, as though they were able to 
partake of the feast. On this occasion a company of 
stage -players {histriones) were sent for from Etruria, as a 
means, according to Livy, 2 of propitiating the favour of 
heaven; but probably also for the wiser purpose of 
diverting the popular mind from the contemplation of 
their own sufferings. These entertainments were a 
novelty to a people whose only recognized public sports 
up to that time, with the exception of the rural drama 
already described, had been trials of bodily strength and 
skill. The exhibitions of the Etruscan histriones con- 
sisted of graceful national dances, accompanied with the 
music of the flute, but without either songs or dramatic 
action. They were, therefore, simply ballets, and not 
dramas. 

Thus the Etruscans furnished the suggestion : the 
Romans improved upon it, and invested it with a dra- 
matic character. They combined the old Fescennine songs 
with the newly -introduced dances. The varied metres 
which the unrestrained nature of their rude verse per- 



is, c. 364 ; a. u. c. 390. 2 Livy, vii. 2. 



DERIVATION OF SATIRE. 49 

mitted to the vocal parts, gave to this mixed entertainment 
the name of satura (a hodge-podge or pot-pourri), from 
which in after-times the word satire was derived. The 
actors in these quasi-dramas were professed histriones, 
and no further alteration took place until that introduced 
by lav ins Andronicus. 



50 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER V. 

EMANCIPATION OF LIVIUS ANDEONICUS — HIS IMITATION OF THE 
ODYSSEY — NEW KIND OF SCENIC EXHIBITIONS — FIRST EXHIBITION 
OF HIS DRAMAS — NiEVIUS A POLITICAL PARTIZAN — HIS BITTER- 
NESS—HIS PUNIC WAR— HIS NATIONALITY— HIS VERSIFICATION. 

LIVIUS ANDRONICUS (FLOURISHED ABOUT B. C. 240). 

The events already related had by this time prepared 
the Roman people for the reception of a more regular 
drama, when, at the conclusion of the first Punic War, 
the influence of Greek intellect, which had already long 
been felt in Italy, extended to the capital. But not 
only did the Eomans owe to Greece the principles of 
literary taste, and the original models from which the 
elements of that taste were derived, but their first and 
earliest poet was one of that nation. Livius Andronicus, 
although born in Italy, educated in the Latin tongue at 
Eome, and subsequently a naturalized Roman, is gene- 
rally supposed to have been a native of the Greek colony 
of Tarentum. He was a man of cultivated mind, and 
well versed in the literature of his nation, especially in 
dramatic poetry. How he came to be at Rome in the 
condition of a slave, it is impossible to say. Attius 
stated that he was taken prisoner at Tarentum by 
Q. Fabius Maximus, when he recovered that city, in the 
tenth year of the second Punic War. But Cicero shows, 
on the authority of Atticus, that this date is thirty years 
later than the period at which he first exhibited at 



LIVIUS IMITATED THE ODYSSEY. 51 

Rome, and Niebuhr 1 considers that the reason why he is 
called a Tarentine captive is, from being confounded with 
one M. Livius Macatns, mentioned by Livy. 2 He may 
perhaps have owed his change of fortune to being made 
a prisoner of war; at any rate, he became one of the 
household of M. Livius Salinator, and occupied the 
confidential position of instructor to his clrildren. The 
employment as tutors of Greek slaves who, being men of 
education and refinement, had fallen into this position 
by the fortune of war, was customary with the wealthy 
Romans. By this means there was rapidly introduced 
amongst the rising generation of the higher classes a 
knowledge of that language and learning which the 
Eomans so eagerly embraced and so enthusiastically 
admired. 

Fidelity in so important a situation generally gained 
the esteem and affection of the patron. The generous 
Roman became a protector of the man of genius rather 
than his master, and conferred upon him the gift of 
freedom. Andronicus was emancipated under such cir- 
cumstances as these, and, according to custom, received 
the name of his former master, Livius, and his civil 
and political rank became that of an serarius. He wrote a 
translation, or perhaps an imitation, of the Odyssey, in 
the old Saturnian metre, and also a few hymns. Niebuhr 
supposes that the reason why he has translated or epito- 
mized the Odyssey in preference to the Iliad is, that it 
would have greater attractions for the Eomans, in con- 
sequence of the relation which it bore to the ancient 
legends of Italy. The sea which washes the coast of 
Italy was the scene of many of the most marvellous 
adventures of Ulysses. Sicily, in which, owing to the 
wars with Hiero and the Carthaginians, the Eomans now 
began to take a lively interest, was represented in the 



Lcct. R. H. lxx. * Lib. xxvii. 34 ; xxiv. 20 

E 2 



52 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Odyssey as abounding in the elements of poetry. Circe's 
fairy abode was within sight of land — a promontory of 
Lathim bore her name, and one of Ulysses' sons by her, 
was, according to the legend of Hesiod, Latinus, the 
patriarch of the Latin name. His principal works, how- 
ever, were tragedies. The passion of the Romans for 
shows and exhibitions, the love of action, and of stirring, 
business-like occupation, which characterizes them, would 
make the drama popular, and it would harmonize with 
the public entertainments, in which they had been accus- 
tomed to take pleasure from the earliest times, when 
tradition informs us that the founder of then race 
instituted the solemn games to the equestrian Neptune, 
and invited all the neighbours to the spectacle; 1 and 
when Ancus celebrated with unwonted splendour the 
Great Games, and appointed separate seats and boxes 
for the knights and senators. 2 It was probable that 
Livius Andronicus, coming forward as the introducer of 
a new era in literature, would study the character as 
well as the language of his newly-adopted countrymen, 
and endeavour to please them as well as teach them. 
In order to become eventually a leader of the public 
taste, he would at first fall in with it to a certain degree. 
The process by which he moulded it after the model 
which he considered the true one, would be gentle and 
gradual, not sudden and abrupt. The paucity and 
brevity of the fragments which are extant furnish but 
little opportunity for forming an accurate estimate of his 
ability as a poet, and his competency to guide and form 
the taste of a people. Hermann 3 has collected together 
the fragments of the Latin Odyssey which are scattered 
through the works of Gellius, Priscian, Festus, Nonius, 
and others, and has compared them with the Homeric 
passages of which they are the translations. Few of 



1 Liv. i. 9, 35. * Ibid. i. 35. 3 Elem. Doctr. Metr. iii. 9 



INTRODUCES REGULAR PLOTS. 53 

these, however, are longer than a single line; and, there- 
tore, the only opinion which can be formed respecting 
them is, that although the versification is rough and 
rhythmical rather than metrical, the language is vigorous 
and expressive, and conveys, as far as a translation can, 
the force and meaning of the original. 

Xor do the criticisms of the ancient classical authors 
furnish much assistance in coming to a decision. Their 
tastes were so completely Greek, and the prejudices of 
their education so strong, that they could scarcely confess 
the existence of excellence in a poet so old as Andronicus. 
Cicero says in the Brutus, 1 that his Latin Odyssey was as 
old-fashioned and rude as would have been the sculptures 
of Daedalus, and that his dramas would not bear a second 
perusal. Horace, however, is not quite so sweeping in 
his strictures. He confesses that he would not condemn 
the poems of Livius 2 to utter oblivion, although he 
remembers them in connexion with the floggings of his 
schoolmaster ; but he is surprised that any one should 
consider them polished and beautiful, and not falling 
far short of critical exactness. 

A passage in the history of Livy seems to imply that 
Andronicus ventured upon some deviations from the 
ancient plan of scenic exhibitions. 3 According to him, 
Livius was the first who substituted, for the rude extem- 
poraneous effusions of the Fescennine verse, plays with a 
regular plot and fable. He adds, that in consequence 
of losing his voice from being frequently encored, he 
obtained permission to introduce a boy to sing the ode, 
or air, to the accompaniment of the flute, whilst he 
himself represented the action of the song by his ges- 
tures and dancing. He was thus enabled to depict the 
subject with greater vigour and freedom of pantomimic 
action, because he was unimpeded by the obligation to 



- Ep. II. i. r;o. •'• Liv. vii. 2. 



54 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

use his voice. Hence the custom began of the actor 
responding by his gesticulation to the song and music 
of another, whilst the dialogue between the odes was 
delivered without any musical accompaniment. 

The passage, of which the above is a paraphrase, is as 
follows : — " Livius post aliquot annos qui ab saturis 
ausus est primus argumento fabulam serere (idem scilicet, 
id quod omnes turn erant, suorum carminum actor) dicitur, 
quum ssepius revocatus vocem obtudisset, venia petita, 
puerum ad canendum ante tibicinem quum statuisset, can- 
ticum egisse aliquanto magis vigente motu, quia nihil 
vocis usus impecliebat. Inde ad manum cantari histrio- 
nibus cseptum, diverbiaque tantum ipsorum voci relicta." 
It is evident that this description points out the intro- 
duction of the principles of Greek art. We are reminded 
of the hyporchemes in honour of Apollo, in which the 
gestures of certain members of the chorus represented 
the incidents related or sentiments expressed by the 
singer, and also the separation of the choral or musical 
part from the dialogue of a Greek tragedy. Nevertheless, 
the choral or lyrical portion of the drama to which 
alone this novel practice introduced by Livius applies, 
found but a small part in a Latin tragedy, if compared 
with those of the Greeks. In this alone the poet himself 
sustained a part, whilst the whole of the dialogue 
(diverbia) was recited by professional performers. 

This new style of dramatic performances, however, 
does not appear at first to have taken such hold upon 
the aifections of the people as to supersede their old 
amusements. They admitted them, and witnessed them 
with pleasure and applause, but they would not give up 
the old. The young men wished their amusements to 
be really games and sports ; they were not content to be 
merely quiet spectators. Extemporaneous effusions were 
more convenient for amateurs than regular plays, and 
joke and jest than tragic earnest. The new custom 






1IKST r.MllHlTION OF HIS DRAMAS. 55 

introduced by Livius elevated the drama above the 
ion of ribaldry and laughter, but the art and skill 
requisite confined the work to the professional performer. 
The young Romans, therefore, left to the stage-player 
the regular drama, restored their old amusement as an 
exodium or after-piece, and did not suffer it, as Livy 
>ays, to be "polluted" by the interference of histriones. 
According' to the testimony of Cicero, 1 who makes his 
statement on the authority of Atticus, Livius first 
exhibited his dramas in the year before the birth of 
Ennius in the consulship of C. Clodius and M. Tudi- 
tanus, a.u.c. 514. 2 This date is also adopted by Aulus 
Grellius, 3 who places his first dramatic representations 
about a hundred and sixty years after the death of So- 
phocles, and fifty-two years after that of Menander. 
The titles of his tragedies which are extant show that 
they were translations or adaptations from the Greek. 
Amongst them are those of Egisthus, Hermione, Tereus, 
Ajax, and Helena. From each of the last two one line 
is preserved, and four lines are quoted by Terentianus 
Maurus from his tragedy of Ino ; 4 but the language and 
metre render it far more probable that they were written 
by some more modern poet. Two of his tragedies, the 
Clytemnestra and the Trojan Horse, were acted in the 
second consulship of Pompey the Great, at the inau- 
guration of the splendid stone theatre 5 which he built. 
N i > expense was spared in putting them upon the stage, 
for Cicero writes, in a letter to M. Marius, 6 that three 
thousand bucklers, the spoils of foreign nations, were 
exhibited in the latter, and a procession of six hundred 
mules, probably riclily caparisoned, were introduced in the 



1 Brut. 72. 2 b. c. 240. 3 Noct. Att. See also Quinct. I. 0. x. 2, 7. 

4 See Bothe, Poetao Seen. Roman. Trag. 

s For the slight differences between a Greek and Roman theatre, the 

r is referred to Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities, sub voce. 
' Ej'. ad Fain. vii. 1. 



56 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

former, whilst cavalry and infantry, clad in various armour, 
mingled in mimic combat on the scene. He considers, 
however, that this splendour was an offence against good 
taste, and that the enjoyment was spoilt by the gor- 
geousness of the spectacle. The taste of his patrons, the 
Roman people, as well as the testimony of antiquity, 
render it highly probable that he was the author of 
comedies 1 as well as tragedies. Festus speaks of one, 
of which he quotes a single line, for the sake of its philo- 
logical value. 

CN. NyEVIUS. 

Nawius was the first poet who really deserves the 
name of Eoman. His countrymen in all ages, as well 
as his contemporaries, looked upon him as one of them- 
selves. The probability is, that he was not actually 
born at Rome, though even this has been maintained 
with some show of plausibility. 2 He was, at any rate, 
by birth entitled to the municipal franchise, and from^ 
his earliest boyhood was a resident in the capital. Nor 
was he a mere servile imitator, but applied Greek taste 
and cultivation to the development of Roman sentiments. 
A true Roman in heart and spirit in his fearless attach- 
ment to liberty ; his stern opposition to all who dared 
invade the rights of his fellow-citizens ; he was unsparing 
in his censure of immorality, and his admiration for 
heroic self-devotion. He was a soldier, and imbibed the 
free and martial enthusiasm which breathes in his poems 
when he fought the battles of his country in the first 
Punic War. His honest principles cemented, in his later 



1 Roman critics divide comedy into Comcedia Palliata, in which the 
characters, and therefore the costume, were Greek ; and Togata, in which 
they were Roman. Comoodia Togata was again subdivided into Trabeata, 
or genteel comedy, and Tabernaria, or low comedy. The Fabulse Prse- 
textatse were historical plays, like those of Shakspeare. 

2 Klussman, Frag. Nssev. 



\ 1 VIUS A POLITICAL PART1ZAN. 57 

years, a strong friendship between him and the upright 
and unbending Cato, 1 — a friendship which probably con- 
tributed to form the political and literary character of 
that stern old Roman. 

It is generally assumed that Naevius was a Campanian ; 
but the only reason for this assumption is, that A. 
( J ell ius J criticises his epitaph, of which Nsevius himself 
was the author, as full of Campanian pride. 

The time of his birth is unknown, but it is probable 
that his public career commenced within a very few years 
after that of Livius. Grellius fixes the exhibition of his 
first drama in B.C. 235, 3 and Cicero places his death in the 
consulship of M. Cornelius Cethegus and P. Sempronius 
Tuditanus, 4 although he allows that Varro, who places it 
somewhat later, is the most painstaking of Eoman anti- 
quarians. It is also certain that he died at an advanced 
age, for, according to Cicero, he was an old man when he 
wrote one of his poems. He was the author of an epic 
poem, the title of which was the Punic War ; but, owing 
to the popularity of dramatic literature, his earliest lite- 
rary productions were tragedies and comedies. The 
titles of most of these show that their subjects were Greek 
legends or stories. It was, therefore, in his epic poem 
that the acknowledged originality of his talents was 
mainly displayed. ISTsevius was a strong political par- 
tisan, a warm supporter of the people against the 
encroachments of the nobility. In consequence of the 
expenditure during the war, great part of the population 
was reduced to poverty, and a strong line of demarcation 
was drawn between the rich and the poor. The estrange- 
ment and want of sympathy between those two classes 
were daily increasing. The barrier of caste was indeed 
almost destroyed, but that of class was beginning to be 



' Cic. Cat. 14. 8 Noct. Att. i. 24 ; xvii. 21. 

? A. U. C. 510 4 A. U. C. 550 ; E. 0. 204. 



58 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

erected in its stead. The passing of the Licinian bills 1 
had led to the gradual rise of a plebeian nobility. The 
Ogulnian law 2 had admitted patrician and plebeian to a 
religions as well as political equality, and more than 
three-quarters of a century had passed away since Appius 
Claudius the blind 3 had given political existence to the 
freedmen by admitting them into the tribes, and had 
even raised some whose fathers had been freedmen to the 
rank of senators, to the exclusion of many distinguished 
plebeians who had filled curule offices. The object 
which he proposed to himself by this policy was un- 
doubtedly the depression of the rising plebeian nobility, 
and this object was for a time attained ; but the ultimate 
result was a vast increase in the numbers and the power 
of those who were opposed to the old patrician nobility, 
by the formation of a higher class, the only qualification 
for admission into which was wealth and intelligence. 
According to the old distinctions of rank it was necessary 
that even a plebeian should have a pedigree ; his father 
and grandfather must have been born free. Appius, when 
chosen for the first time, waived this, and introduced a 
new principle of political party. Of this anti-aristocratic 
party NaBvius was the literary representative, and the 
vehement opponent of privileges derived from the accident 
of birth. His position, too, was calculated to provoke a 
man of better temper. He was a Roman citizen, but, as 
a native of a municipal town, he did not possess the full 
franchise which he saw enjoyed by others around him 
who were intellectually inferior to himself, and the sense 
of his political inferiority was galling to him. Accord- 
ingly he used literature as a new and powerful instrument 
to foster the jealousy which existed between the orders 
of the state. He attacked the principle of an aristocracy 
of birth in the persons of some members of the most 



B. c. 367. 2 b. c. 300. 3 b. c. 312. 






ins SATIRICAL BITTERNESS. 59 

distinguished families. He held up Scipio Africanus to 
ridicule by making him the hero of a tale of scandal. 

Efciam qui res magnaa manu gessit sa3pe gloriose, 
Cujus facta viva nunc vigent, qui apud gentes solas 
Praestat, euni suns pater cum pallio una ab arnica abduxit. 

The public services of the two Metelli could not shield 
them from the poet's bitterness, which attributed their 
•oiisulships not to then own merits, but to the mere will 
of fate. 1 One bitter sentence, "Fato Metelli Bomse fiunt 
consoles," made that powerful family his enemies. The 
Metellus, who at that time held the office of consul, 
threatened him with vengeance for his slander in the fol- 
lowing verse : — " Dabunt malum Metelli Nsevio poetsc ;" 
and the offending poet was indicted for a libel, in pur- 
suance of a law of the Twelve Tables, 2 and thrown into 
prison. Whilst there he composed two pieces, in which 
he expressed contrition ; and Plautus 3 describes him as 
watched by two gaolers, pensively resting his head upon 
his hands : — 

Nam os columnatum poetse esse inaudivi barbaro, 
Quoi bini custodes semper totis horis accubant. 

Through the influence of the tribunes he was set at 
liberty. 4 As, however, is frequently the case, he could 
not resist indulging again in his satiric vein, and he was 
exiled to Utica, where he died, 5 having employed the last 
years of his life in writing his epic poem. The following 
laudatory epitaph was written by himself: — 

Mortales immortales flere si foret fas, 
Flerent Divse Camense Nsevium poetam. 
Itaque postquam est Orcino traditus thesauro 
Obliti sunt Rornani loquier Latina lingua. 

If gods might to a mortal pay the tribute of a tear, 
The Muses would shed one upon the poet Noevius' bier ; 
For when he was transferred unto the regions of the tomb, 
The people soon forgot to speak the native tongue of Rome. 



1 Cic. Verrcs, i. 10. 2 See Arnold's Rome, 1. 289. 

J Miles Glorios. IL, ii. 56. 4 A. Gell. iii. 3. 
■ b. c. 204. See Cic. Brut. 15. 



60 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The best and most admired writers have paid their 
homage to his excellence. Ennius and Virgil discovered 
in him such a freshness and power that they unscru- 
pulously copied and imitated him, and transferred his 
thoughts into their own poems as they did those of 
Homer. Horace writes that in his day the poems of 
Nsevius were universally read, and were in the hands and 
hearts of everybody, and Cicero 1 praises him, although 
he had no taste for the old national literature. 

We cannot be surprised at the universal popularity of 
NsBvius. His stern love of liberty, his unsparing opposi- 
tion to aristocratic exclusiveness, was identical with the 
old Roman republicanisn. His taste for satire exactly 
fell in with the spirit of the earliest Roman literature, 
whilst he depicted with life and vigour and graphic skill 
the scenes of heroism in which the soldier-poet of the 
first Punic War was himself an actor. His tragedies 
were probably entirely taken from the Greek, but his 
comedies had undoubted pretensions to originality. The 
titles of many of them plainly show a Greek origin ; but 
probably all more or less presented pictures of Eoman 
life and manners, and therefore went home to the hearts 
of the people. This is essential to the complete effective- 
ness of comedy. Tragedy appeals to higher feelings : it 
depicts passions and principles of action which are recog- 
nized by the whole human race ; it may, therefore, enlist 
the sympathies on the side of those whose habits and 
manners differ from our own, as it does in favour of those 
characters which are of a heroic and superhuman mould. 
Comedy professes to describe real life, and to paint men 
as they are ; it therefore loses part of its power unless it 
deals with scenes which the experience of the audience 
can realize. Thus it is with painting. The high art of 
the Italian school, which selected for its subjects the 
holy scenes of religion, the heroism of history, and the 

1 Ep. ii. 153 ; Brutus, 19. 



HIS POEM ON THE FIRST IMMC WAR. 61 

creations of classical poetry, was fostered by the taste 
of the rich and noble amongst a highly-cultivated and 
imaginative people. The homely realities of the Flemish 
painters, with their accurate and lifelike delineations, 
were the delight of a rude prosaic nation, who could 
not appreciate a more elevated style or understand ideal 
beauties unless brought down to the level of every-day 
life. 

The new form with which Nsevius invested comedy 
gave him scope for holding up to public scorn the pre- 
vailing vices and follies of the day. He had also another 
vehicle for personality in his Ludi or Satirse, as they were 
termed by Cicero. These w T ere comic scenes, and not 
regular dramas, somewhat resembling the Atellan farces, 
without their extemporaneous character. But his great 
work was his poem on the first Punic War. We cannot 
judge of its merits by the few fragments which remain ; 
but the testimony borne to it by Cicero, and the use 
which was made of it by Ennius and Virgil,' prove that 
it fully deserved the title of an epic poem. The idea was 
original, the plot and characters Eoman. The author, 
although Greek literature taught him how to be a poet, 
drew his inspiration from the scenes of his native Italy 
and the exploits of his countrymen, To this poem Virgil 
owed that beautiful allegorical representation of the un- 
dying enmity between Eome and Carthage, and the dis- 
astrous love of iEneas and Dido. Here was first painted 
in such touching colours the self-devoted patriotism of 
Eegulus, whom (although love of historic truth refuses 
to believe the legend) the poet represents as sacrificing 
home and wife and children to a sense of honour, and as 
submitting to a torturing death for the sake of his coun- 
try. Probably many other heart-stirring legends and 
tales of prowess which had cheered the nightly bivouac 
of the soldiers and inspirited them in the field, were em- 
bodied in this popular epic. Not that he disdained any 



62 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

more than Virgil the aid of Homer. 1 The second book 
of the Iliad suggested to him the enumeration of the op- 
posing forces at the commencement of the struggle, and 
the description of the storm, from which Virgil, in his 
turn, copied in the iEneid, 2 owes much of its energy to 
the eighth book of the Odyssey. The expostulation of 
Venus with the father of gods and men, 3 respecting the 
perils of her son, and the promise of future prosperity to 
the descendants of iEneas, with which Jupiter consoles 
her, as well as the address of iEneas to his companions, 
are imitations of passages from this poem of Nsevius; 
and Ennius copied so much from him and his prede- 
cessors as to have provoked the following rebuke from 
Cicero: 4 — " They have written well, if not with all thy 
elegance, and so oughtest thou to think who have borrowed 
so much from Nsevius, if you confess that you have done 
so, or, if you deny it, have stolen so much from him." 

The fragments of Nsevius extant are not more numerous 
than those of Livius, but some are rather longer. The 
two following may be quoted as examples of simplicity 
and power : — 

Amborum 
Uxores noctu Troiad exibant capitibus 
Opertis, flentes ambae, abeuntes lacrymis multis. 5 

These few words tell their tale with as much pathos as 
that admired line in the Andrian of Terence— 

Rejecit se in eum flens quam familiariter. 

The following lines describe the panic of the Carthagi- 
nians ; nor could any Eoman poet have sketched the pic- 
ture in fewer strokes or with more suggestive power : — ■ 

Sic Poinei contremiscunt artibus universim ; 
Magnei metus tumultus pectora possidet 
Csesum funera agitant, exequias ititant, 
Temulentiamque tollunt festam. 6 



1 Pierron, Hist, de la R. 42. " 2 Lib. i. 198. 

3 Cic. Brut. 19 ; Macr. vi. 2. 4 Brutus, 76. 

5 Meyer's Anthol. Lat. 6 Ibid. 



HIS NATIONALITY. 63 

Whoever can forgive roughness of expression for the 
sake oi' vigorous thought, would, if more had remained, 
have read with delight the inartificial although unpo- 
lished poetry of Nsevius. Without that elaborate work- 
manship which was to the Eoman the ouly substitute 
for the spontaneous grace and beauty of all that proceeded 
from the Greek mind, and was expressed in the Greek 
tongue, there is no doubt that JSTsevius displayed genius, 
originality, and dignity. The prejudices of Horace in 
favour of Greek taste were too strong for him to value 
what was old in poetry, or to sympathise with the ad- 
miration of that which the goddess of death had con- 
secrated. 1 But Cicero, whilst he attributed to Livius 
only the mechanic skill and barbaric art of Daedalus, gave 
to ISTsevius the creative talent and plastic power of 
Myron. 

Even when Eoman critics were not unanimous in 
assigning him a niche amongst the greatest bards, the 
Eoman people loved him as their national poet, and 
were grateful to him for his nationality. They paid him 
the highest compliment possible by retaining him as the 
educator of their youth. Orbilius flogged his sentiments 
into his pupils' memories ; and, whilst the niceties of 
grammar were taught through the instrumentality of 
Greek by Greek instructors, and poetic taste was formed 
by a study of the Homeric poems, Naevius still had the 
formation of the character of the young Eoman gentlemen, 
and his epic was in the hands and hearts of every one. 

One more subject remains to be treated of with refer- 
ence to the literary productions of ISTaevius, and that is, 
the metrical character of his poetry. He appreciated that 
important element of Greek poetic beauty. The varied 
versification by means of which it appeals at once to the 
ear, just as physical beauty charms long before we are 



1 II. Epist. i. 49. 



64 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

attracted by the hidden power of moral excellence, and 
external form creates a prejndice in favour of that which 
is of more intrinsic value, but cannot so readily be per- 
ceived, so the melody of verse more readily pleases than 
the beauty of the imagery and sentiments which the 
verses convey. Nsevius, therefore, did not disdain to 
recommend his original genius by a study of the prin- 
ciples of Greek versification, and by clothing his thoughts 
in those, which his ear suggested as being most appro- 
priate to the occasion. He does not seem to have over- 
come the difficulties of the heroic metre, although he 
studied the Homeric poems. 

Probably as the Saturnian, the only natural Italian 
measure which he found existing, was a triple time, the 
Roman ear could not at once adapt itself to the .common 
time of the dactylic measures. The versification of our 
own country furnishes an analogous example. The usual 
metres of English poetry consist of an alternation of 
long and short syllables ; dactyles and anapsests are of 
less frequent occurrence and are of more modern intro- 
duction, and the English ear is even yet not quite ac- 
customed to the hexametrical rhythm. The dignity of 
the epic is expressed in the grave march of the iambus ; 
the ballad tells its story in the same metre, though in 
shorter lines ; the joyous Anacreontic adopts the dancing 
step of the trochee. For this reason, perhaps, Nsevius, 
as a matter of taste, Hmited himself to the introduction of 
iambic and trochaic metres, and the irregular features of 
Greek lyric poetry to the exclusion of the heroic hexa- 
meter. 

It was long before the Romans could arrive at per- 
fection in this metre. Ennius was unsuccessful. His 
hexameters are rough and unmusical ; he seems never to 
have perfectly understood the nature and beauty of the 
ccesura or pause. The failure of Cicero, notwithstanding 
his natural musical ear, is proverbial. No one previous 



1I1S VERSIFICATION. 65 

to Virgil seems to have overcome the difficulty. Versifi- 
cation seems always to have been somewhat of a labour 
to the Romans. In the structure of their poetry they 
worked by rule; their finish was artistic, but it was 
artificial. Hence the Latin poet allowed himself less 
metrical liberty than the Greek, whom he made his model. 
He seemed to feel that the Greek metres, which the 
education of his taste had compelled him to adopt, were 
not precisely the form into which Latin words naturally 
fell j that this deficiency must be supplied by the care 
with which he moulded his verse, according to the 
strictest possible standard. One can imagine the extem- 
poraneous effusions of a Homeric bard ; but to Eoman 
taste which, in every literary work, especially in poetry, 
looked for elaborate finish, the power of the improvi- 
sator, who could pour forth a hundred verses standing 
on one foot, was a ridiculous pretension. 1 

As a general rule no Eoman poet attained facility in 
versification ; Ovid was perhaps the only exception. In 
the early period when Eoman poetry was extemporaneous, 
their national verse was only rhythmical, and now that 
modern Italy can boast of the faculty of improvisation 
verse has become rhythmical again. But although 
Nsevius introduced a variety of Greek metres to the 
Eomans, the principal part of his poems, and especially 
his national epic, were written in the old Saturnian mea- 
sure : its structure was indeed less rude, and its metre 
more regular and scientific, but still he did not permit the 
new rules of Greek poetry to banish entirely the favourite 
verses " in which in olden times Fauns and bards sung," 
and which would most acceptably convey to the national 
ear the achievements of Eoman arms. 



1 Horace, 1 Serm. iv. 10. 



66 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER VI. 

NtEVIUS stood between two ages— life of ennius— epitaphs 
written by him — his taste, learning, and character— his 
fitness for being a literary reformer — his influence on 
the language — his vershtcation — the annals — difficulties 
of the subject — tragedies and comedies — satire — minor 

WORKS. 

ENNIUS (BORN B. C. 239). 

N^ivius appears to have occupied a position between two 
successive ages ; he was the last of the oldest school 
of writers, and prepared the way for a new one. 
Although a true Eoman in sentiment, he admired Greek 
cultivation. He saw with regret the old literature of his 
country fading away, although he had himself introduced 
new principles of taste to his countrymen. He was not 
prepared for the shock of seeing the old school superseded 
by the new. But still the period for this had arrived, 
and in his epitaph, as we have seen, he deplored that 
Latin had died with him. A love for old Roman litera- 
ture remained amongst the goatherds of the hills and the 
husbandmen of the valleys and plains, in whose memories 
lived the old songs which had been the delight of their 
infancy : it survived amongst the few who could discern 
merit in undisciplined genius; but the rising generation, 
who owed their taste to education, admired only those pro- 
ductions by which their taste had been formed. Greek 
literature had now an open field in which to nourish : it 
had driven out its predecessor, although as yet it had not 
struck its roots deeply into the Eoman mind; a new 
school of poetry arose, and of that school Ennius was 



LIFE OF ENNIUS. 67 

the founder. The principal events in the life of 
Ennius are as follows : — he was born at the little village 
of Rudia\ in the wild and mountainous Calabria, b. c. 
239. 1 Of ancient and honourable descent, 2 he is said 3 to 
have begun life in a military career, and to have risen 
to the rank of a centurion or captain. The anonymous 
author of the life of Cato, which is generally attributed 
to Cornelius Nepos, relates that Cato in his voyage from 
Africa to Borne 4 visited Sardinia, and finding Ennius in 
that island took liim home with him. But no reason 
can be assigned why Ennius should have been there, or 
why Cato should have gone so far out of his way. If 
the Censor did really introduce the poet to public notice 
at Borne, he may have made his acquaintance during his 
qusestorship in Africa, if Ennius was with Scipio in 
that province; or during his prsetorship 5 in Sardinia, if 
the poet was a resident in that island. There exists, 
however, no sufficient data to clear up these difficulties. 

It seems, moreover, strange that Cato should have been 
his patron, and yet that he should have reproached M. 
Fulvius Nobilior for taking the poet with him as his 
companion throughout his iEtolian expedition. 6 With, the 
exception of this campaign, Ennius resided during the re- 
mainder of his long life at Rome. Greek and Greek litera- 
ture were noAV eagerly sought after by the higher classes, 
and Ennius earned a subsistence sufficient for his mode- 
rate wants by tuition. He enjoyed the friendship and 
esteem of the leading literary societies at Eome ; and at 
his death, at the age of seventy, he was buried in the 
family tomb of the Scipios, at the request of the great 
conqueror of Hannibal, whose fame he contributed to hand 
down to posterity. His statue was honoiu*ed with a 



1 a. u. c. 515. 2 Claudian. xxiii. 7- 3 vSilius It. 

4 B. c. 204. 5 b. c. 198. 6 b. c. 189. 

f2 



68 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

niche amongst the images of that illustrious race. The 
following epitaph was written by himself: — 1 

Adspicite, cives,, senis Eimi imagini' formam 
Hie vostram panxit maxima facta patrum. 

Nemo me lacrymis decoret, nee funera fletu 
Faxit. cur 1 volito vivu' per ora virum. 

The epitaph which he wrote in honour of Scipio 
Africanus has also been preserved : — 2 

Hie est ille situs, cui nemo civi' neque hostis 
Quivit pro factis recldere operse pretium. 

It is probable that death alone put a period to his 
career as a poet, and that his last work was completed 
but a short time before his decease. So popular was he 
for centuries, and with such care were his poems pre- 
served, that his whole works are said to have existed 
as late as the thirteenth century. 3 

Literature, as represented by Ennius, attained a higher 
social and political position than it had hitherto enjoyed. 
Livius Andronicus was, as we have seen, a freedman, and 
probably a prisoner of war. Nsevius never arrived at the 
full civic franchise, nor became anything more than the 
native of a municipality, resident at Rome. Hitherto 
the Romans, although they had begun to admire learn- 
ing, had not learned to respect its professors. Ennius 
was evidently a gentleman ; he was the first to obtain for 
literature its due influence. Thus he achieved for him- 
self the much-coveted privileges of a Roman citizen, to 
which Livius had never aspired, and which Nsevius was 
never able to attain. Hence Cicero always speaks of 
him with affection as a fellow-countryman. " Our own 
Ennius " is the appellation which he uses when he quotes 
his poetry. Horace also calls him " Father Ennius/' a 



1 Meyer, Anthol. Vet. Eom. No. 19. 
2 Meyer, No. 16. 3 Smith's Diet, of Biograph. s. v. Ennius. 



HIS LEARNING AND CHARACTER. 69 

term implying not only that he was the founder of Latin 
poetry, but also reverence and regard. 

To discriminating taste and extensive learning he added 
that versatility of talent which is displayed in the great 
variety of his compositions. He was acquainted with all 
the best existing sources of poetic lore, the ancient legends 
of the Roman people, and the best works of the Greek 
writers ; he had critical judgment to select beautiful and 
interesting portions, ingenuity to imitate them, and at 
the same time genius and fancy to clothe them with 
originality. It was not to be expected that he could be 
entirely freed from the antiquated style of the old school. 
The process of remodelling a national literature, including 
the very language in which it is expressed, and the 
metrical harmonies in which it falls upon the ear, is 
almost like reforming the modes of thought, and recon- 
structing the character of a people. Such a work must 
be gradual and gentle : a nation's mind will not bend at 
once to new principles of taste and new rules of art. To 
attempt a violent revolution would be absurd, and argue 
ignorance of human nature. The poet who attempted it 
would fail in gaining sympathy, which is an essential 
element of success. To cause such a revolution at all 
requires a strong will and a vigorous manly mind ; and 
these are precisely the characteristic features of the Ennian 
poetry. 

If we were to paint the character best adapted to act 
the part of a literary reformer to a nation such as the 
Romans were, it would be exactly that of Ennius. He 
was, like his friends Cato the Censor and Scipio Africanus 
the elder, a man of action as well as philosophical thought. 
He was not only a poet, but he was a brave and stout- 
hearted soldier. He had all the singleness of heart and 
unostentatious simplicity of manners which marked the 
old times of Roman virtue ; he lived the life of the 
Cincinnati, the Curii, and Fabricii, which the poets of the 



70 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

luxurious Augustan age professed to admire, but did not 
imitate. Eome was now beginning to be wealthy, and 
wealth to be the badge of rank ; yet the noble poet was 
respected by the rich and great even in his lowly cottage 
on the Aventine, and found it no discredit to be employed 
as an instructor of youth, although it had been up to his 
time only the occupation of servants and freedmen. He 
was the founder of a new school, and was leading his 
admirers forward to a new career; but his imagination 
could revel in the recollections and traditions of the past. 
To him the glorious exploits of the patriarchs of his race 
furnished as rich a mine of fable as the heroic strains of 
Homer, the marvellous mythologies of Hesiod, and the 
tragic heroes of Argos, My cense, and Thebes. His early 
training in Greek philosophy and poetry, and in the 
midst of Greek habits in his native village, had not 
polished and refined away his natural freshness. He was 
a child of art, but a child of nature still. He had a firm 
belief in his mission as a poet, an abiding conviction of 
his inspiration. He thought he was not metaphorically, 
but really, what Horace calls him, a second Homer, 1 for 
that the soul of the great Greek bard now animated his 
mortal body. He had all the enthusiasm and boldness 
necessary for accomplishing a great task, together with a 
consciousness that his task was a great and honourable 
one. 

Owing to this rare union of the best points of Roman 
character with Greek refinement and civilization, he ren- 
dered himself as well as his works acceptable to the most 
distinguished men of his day, and his intimacy and friend- 
ship influenced the minds of Porcius Cato, Lselius, Fulvius 
Nobilior, and the great Scipio. 

A comparison of the extant specimens of the old Latin 
with the numerous fragments 2 of the poems of Ennius 



1 % ii. i. 50. * Meyer, Anthol. 515—585, 



HIS LEARNING AND CHARACTER. 71 

which have been preserved, will show how deeply thev 
were indebted to him for the improvement of their lan- 
guage, not only in the harmony of its numbers and the 
convenience of its grammatical forms, but also in its 
copiousness and power. 

It must not, however, be supposed that Ennius is to be 
praised, not only because he did so much, but because he 
refrained from doing more, as though he designedly left 
an antiquated rudeness, redolent of the old Eoman spirit 
and simplicity. A language in the condition or phase of 
improvement to which he brought it is valuable in an 
antiquarian point of view ; but it is not to be admired as 
if it were then in a higher state of perfection than it after- 
wards attained. Elaborate polish may, perhaps, overcome 
life and freshness, but no one who possesses any correctness 
of ear or appreciation of beauty can prefer the limping 
hexameters of Ennius to the musical lines of Virgil, or 
his Latin style to the refined eloquence of the Augustan 
age. As Quintilian says, we value Ennius, not for the 
beauty of his style, but for his picturesqueness, and for the 
holiness, as it were, which consecrates antiquity, just as 
we feel a reverential awe when we contemplate the huge 
gnarled fathers of the forest. " Ennium sicut sacros vetus- 
tate lucos adoremus in quibus grandia et antiqua robora, 
jam non tantam habent speciem, quantam religionem." 

His predecessors had done little to remould the rude 
and undigested mass which, as has been shown, was made 
up of several elements, thrown together by the chances 
of war and conquest, and left to be amalgamated together 
by the natural genius of the people. Ennius naturally 
possessed great power over words, and wielded that power 
skilfully. In reconstructing the edifice he did the most 
important and most difficult part, although the result of 
his labours does not strike the eye as perfect and consum- 
mate. He laid the foundation strongly and safely. What 
he did was improved upon, but was never undone. The 



72 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

taste of succeeding ages erected on his basement an 
elegant and beautiful superstructure. To Ennius we owe 
the fact that after his time Latin literature was always 
advancing until it reached its perfection. It never went 
back, because the groundwork on which it was built was 
sound. 

Ennius imitated most of the Greek metrical forms ; 
but he wrote verses like a learner, and not like one 
imbued with the spirit of the metres which he imitated. 
He attended to the prosodiac rules of quantity, so far as 
his observation deduced them from the analogies of the 
two languages, instead of the old Roman principle of ictus 
or stress ; but, provided the number of feet were correct, and 
the long and short syllables followed each other in proper 
order, his ear was satisfied : it was not as yet sufficiently 
in tune to appreciate those minuter accessaries which 
embellish later Latin versification. This is the prin- 
cipal cause of that ruggedness with which even the 
admirers of Ennius justly find fault. But notwithstand- 
ing these defects, there are amongst his verses some as 
musical and harmonious as those of the best poets in the 
Augustan age. 

His great epic poem, entitled " The Annals," gained 
him the attachment as well as the admiration of his 
countrymen. This poem, written in hexameters, a metre 
now first introduced to the notice of the Eomans, detailed 
in eighteen books the rise and progress of their national 
glory, from the earliest legendary periods down to his 
own times. The only portion of history which he omitted 
was the first Punic war ; and the reason which he gives 
for the omission is that others have anticipated him 1 — ■ 
alluding to his predecessors Livius and Naavius. 

The subject which he proposed to himself was one of 
considerable difficulty. The title and scope of his work 



Cic. Brut. 76. 



DIFFICULTIES OF HIS TASK. 73 

compelled him to adopt a strict chronological order 
instead of the principles of epic arrangement, and to 
invest the truths which the course of history forced upon 
his acceptance with the interest of fiction. His subject 
could have no unity, no hero upon whose fortunes the 
principal interest should be concentrated, and around 
whom the leading events should group themselves. But 
still no history could be better adapted to his purpose 
than that of his own country. Its early legends form a 
long series of poetical romances, fit to be sung in heroic 
numbers, although from being originally unconnected with 
each other, incapable of being woven into one epic story. 
Ennius had to unite in himself the characters of the his- 
torian and the poet — to teach what he believed to be truth, 
and jet to move the feelings and delight the fancy by 
the embellishments of fiction. The poetical merit in 
which he must necessarily have been deficient was the 
conduct of the plot ; but the fragments of his poem are 
not sufficiently numerous for us to discover this deficiency. 
They are, however, amply sufficient to show that he pos- 
sessed picturesque power both in sketching his narratives 
and hi portraying his characters. His scenes are full of 
activity and animation ; his characters seem to live and 
breathe ; his sentiments are noble, and full of a healthful 
enthusiasm. His language is what that of an old Roman 
ought to be, such as we might have expected from Cato 
and Scipio had they been poets : dignified, chaste, severe, 
it rises as high as the most majestic eloquence, although 
it does not soar to the sublimity of poetry. 

The parts in which he approaches most nearly to his 
great model, or, as he believed, the source of his inspira- 
tion, were in his descriptions of battles. Here the martial 
spirit of the Eoman warrior shines forth ; the old soldier 
seems to revel in the scenes of his youth. The poem 
which occupied his declining years shows that it was his 
greatest pleasure to record the triumphs of his country- 



74 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

men, and to teacli posterity how their ancestors had won 
so many glorious fields. His similes are simply imita- 
tions; they show that he had taste to appreciate the 
peculiar features of the Homeric poem ; but as must be 
the case with mere imitations, they have not the energy 
which characterizes his battles. 

As a dramatic poet, Ennius does not deserve a high 
reputation. A tragic drama must be of native growth, 
it will not bear transplanting. The Eomans did not 
possess the elements of tragedy ; the genius of Ennius 
was not able to remedy that defect, and he could do no 
more than select, with the taste and judgment which he pos- 
sessed, such Greek dramas as were likely to be interesting. 
Probably, however, his tragedies never became popular ; 
they were admired by the narrow literary circle in which 
his private life was passed. Those who were familiar 
with the Greek originals were delighted to see their 
favourites transferred into their native language ; those 
who were not, had their curiosity gratified, and welcomed 
even these reflections of the glorious minds of 2Eschylus, 
Sophocles, and Euripides. 

But the tribute of admiration which the ancient 
classical authors paid to Ennius, was paid to him as an 
epic not as a dramatic poet. Cicero when he speaks in 
his praise generally quotes from the Annals, only once 
from a tragedy. 1 Yirgil borrows lines and thoughts, to- 
gether with the commencement and conclusion of the 
same poem ; and, although the fame of Ennius survived 
the decline of Roman tragedy, and flourished even in the 
age of the Antonines, 2 and his verses were heard in the 
theatre of Puteoli (Pozzuoli), the entertainment did not 
consist of one of his tragedies, but of recitations from his 
epic poem. Nevertheless his tragedies were very numerous, 



Andromache. a A. Gellius. 



HIS TRAGEDIES, COMEDIES, AND SATIRiE. 75 

and the titles and some fragments of twenty-three remain. 
They are all close imitations, or even translations, of the 
Greek. Of fifteen fragments of his Medea which are 
extant, there is not one which does not correspond with 
some passage in the Medea of Euripides : the little which 
we have of his Eumenides is a transcript from the tragedy 
of ^Eschylus ;* and, according to A. Grellius, his Hecuba 
is a clever translation likewise. 

His favourite model was Euripides : nor is it surprising 
that he should have been better able to appreciate the 
inferior excellencies of this dramatic poet, when we re- 
member that the birth of Latin literature was coincident 
with the decay of that of Greece. Callimachus died just 
as Livius began to write. 2 Theocritus expired when 
Ennius was twenty-five years old ; 3 and by this decaying 
living literature his taste must have been partially 
educated and formed. 

In comedy, as in tragedy, he never emancipated him- 
self from the trammels of the Greek originals. His 
comedies were palliatce ; and Terence when accused of 
plagiarism defends himself by an appeal to the example 
of Ennius. Fragments are preserved of four only. 

The poems which he wrote in various metres, and on 
miscellaneous subjects, were, for that reason, entitled 
Satires or Saturce. Ennius does not, indeed, anticipate 
the claim of Lucilius to be considered the father of 
Roman satire in its proper sense ; but still there can be 
little doubt that the scope of these minor poems was the 
chastisement of vice. The degeneracy of Roman virtue, 
even in his days, provoked language of Arcliilochian bitter- 
ness from so stern a moralist, although he would not 
libellously attack those who were undeserving of censure < 
The salutation which he addresses to himself expresses 



1 Pierron, Rom. Lit. p. 74. 2 b. c. 280. s b. c. 214. 



76 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the burning indignation wliicli he felt against wicked- 
ness : — 

Enni poeta salve qui mortalibus 
Versus propinas flammeos medullitus. 

Amongst his minor works were epitaphs on Scipio 
and on himself, a didactic poem, entitled Epicharmus, a 
collection of moral precepts, an encomium on his Mend 
Scipio Africanus, a translation in hexameters of a poem on 
edible fishes and their localities, by Archestratus (Phage- 
tica), and a work entitled Asotus, the existence of which 
is only known from its being mentioned by Yarro and 
Eestus for the sake of etymological illustration ; by some 
it is thought to have been a comedy. The idea that he 
was the author of a piece called " Sabinse " is without 
foundation. 

Cicero 1 mentions a mythological work (Evemerus), a 
translation in trochaics of the *Iepa ' Avcvy pa(j)t] of the 
Sicilian writer who bore that name. It was a work well 
adapted to the talent which Ennius possessed of relating 
mythical traditions, in the form of poetical history. The 
theory embodied in the original was one which is often 
adopted by Livy in his early history, and therefore most 
probably entered into the ancient legends, namely, that 
the gods were originally mighty warriors and benefactors 
of mankind, who, as their reward, were deified and wor- 
shipped. 

1 De Nat. Deor. i. 42. 



( 77 ) 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE NEW COMEDY OF THE GREEKS THE MODEL OF THE ROMAN — THE 
MORALITY OF ROMAN COMEDY — WANT OF VARIETY IN THE PLOTS 
OF ROMAN COMEDY DRAMATIS PERSONS — COSTUME CHARAC- 
TERS MUSIC — LATIN PRONUNCIATION — METRICAL LICENSES— 

CRITICISM OF VOLCATIUS — LD7E OF PLAUTUS — CHARACTER OF HIS 
COMEDLES — ANALYSIS OF HIS PLOTS. 

It has already been shown that the dramatic taste of the 
Eomans first displayed itself in the rudest species of 
comedy. The entertainment was extemporaneous and 
performed by amateurs, and rhythmical only so far as to 
be consistent with these conditions. It was satirical, 
personal, full of burlesque extravagances, practical jokes, 
and licentious jesting. When it put on a more s} r stematic 
form, by the introduction of music, and singing, and 
dancing, and professional actors, still the Roman youth 
would not give up their national amusement, and a 
marked distinction was made in the social and political 
condition of the actor and the amateur. Italian comedy 
made no further progress, but on it was engrafted the 
Greek comedy, and hence arose that phase of the drama, 
the representatives of which were Plautus, Csecilius 
Statius, and Terence. 

Now the old Attic comedy consisted of either political 
or literary criticism. In Italy, however, the Fescennine 
verses, and the farces of Atella, were not political, neither 
was there any literature to criticise or to parody. But 
the personalities in which the people had taken pleasure 
prepared them to enjoy the comedy of manners, embody- 
ing as it did pictures of social life. The new comedy, 



78 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

therefore, of the Greeks furnished a suitable model ; and 
the comedies of Menander, Diphilus, Apollodorus, and 
others formed a rich mine of materials for adaptation or 
imitation. 

From them the Roman poet could derive much more 
than the " vis comica," in which Csesar complained that 
they were still so deficient. In the extant fragments of 
Menander may be found powerful delineations of human 
passions, especially of the pains and pleasures of love, 
melancholy but true views of the vanity of human hopes, 
elevated moral sentiments, and noble ideas of the divine 
nature. A vein of temperate and placid gentleness, inter- 
mingled with amiable pleasantry, pervaded the comedies 
of Philemon, and his sentiments are tender and serious, 
without being gloomy. These good qualities recom- 
mended them to Chrysostom, Eustathius, and other early 
Christians, by whom so. many of their fragments have 
been preserved. 

There is no doubt that the comic, as well as the tragic 
poet of Greece, considered himself as a public instructor ; 
but it is difficult to say how far the Eoman author recog- 
nized a moral object, because it cannot be determined 
what moral sentiments were designedly introduced, and 
what were merely transcriptions from the original. It is 
plain, however, that Eoman comedy was calculated to 
produce a moral result, although the morality which it 
inculcated was extremely low : its standard was merely 
worldly prudence, its lessons utilitarian, its philosophy, 
like that of Menander liimself, Epicurean, and therefore it 
did not inculcate an unbending sense of honour, the self- 
denying heroism of the Stoic school, or that rigid Roman 
virtue which was akin to it — it contented itself with en- 
couraging the benevolent affections. 

It did not profess to reform the knave, except by showing 
him that knavery was not always successful. It taught 
that cunning must be met with its own weapons, and 



PLOTS OF ROMAN COMEDIES. 79 

that the qualities necessary for the conflict were wit and 
sharpness. The union between the moral and the comic 
element was exhibited in making intrigue successful wher- 
ever the victim was deserving of it, and in representing 
him as foiled by accidents and cross-purposes, because the 
prudence and caution of the knave are not always on a par 
with his cunning. It also had its sentimental side, and 
the sympathies of the audience were enlisted in favour of 
good temper, affection, and generosity. 

But the new Attic comedy presented a truthful por- 
traiture of real native life. This was scarcely ever the 
case with the Eomans; the plots, characters, localities, 
and political institutions, were all Greek, and therefore it 
can only be said that the whole was in perfect harmony 
and consistency with Eoman modes of thinking and 
acting. The comedies of Plautus probably, as will be 
seen hereafter, form the only exception. 

It cannot be denied that there is a want of variety in 
the plots of Eoman comedy; 1 but this defect is owing 
to the political and social condition of ancient Greece. 
Greece and the neighbouring countries were divided into 
numerous independent states ; its narrow seas were, even 
more than they are now, infested with pirates, who had 
their nests and lurking-places in the various unfrequented 
coasts and islands ; and slaves were an article of mer- 
chandize. Many a romantic incident therefore occurred, 
such as is found in comedy. A child would be stolen, 
sold as a slave, educated in all the accomplishments which 
would fit her to be an Hetcera, engage the affections of 
some young Athenian, and eventually, from some jewels 
or personal marks, be recognized by her parents, and re- 
stored to the rank of an Athenian citizen. 

Again, in order to confine the privilege of citizenship, 
marriages with foreigners were invalid, and this restric- 



1 See Lecture vii. of A. W. v. Schlegel. 



80 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

tion on marriage caused the Hetcera to occupy so promi- 
nent a part in comedy ; besides love was little more than 
sensual passion, and marriage generally a matter of con- 
venience : the Hetserse, too, were often clever and accom- 
plished, whilst the virtuous matron was fitter for the 
duties of domestic life than for society. The regulations 
of the Greek theatre also, which were adopted by the 
Eomans, caused some restrictions upon the variety of plots. 
In comedy the scene represented the public street, in which 
Greek females of good character did not usually appear 
unveiled : matrons, nurses, and women of light character 
alone are introduced upon the stage, and in all the plays 
of Terence, except the eunuch, the heroine is never seen. 

As the range of subjects is small, so there is a sameness 
in the dramatis persona? : the principal characters are a 
morose and parsimonious or a gentle and easy father, who 
is sometimes, also, the henpecked husband of a rich wife, 
an affectionate or domineering wife, a young man who 
is frank and good-natured but profligate, a grasping or 
benevolent Hetsera, a roguish servant, a fawning favourite, 
a hectoring coward, an unscrupulous procurer, and a cold 
calculating slave-dealer. 

The actors wore appropriate masks, sometimes partial, 
sometimes covering the whole face, the features of which 
were not only grotesque, but much exaggerated and magni- 
fied. This was rendered absolutely necessary by the 
immense size of the theatre, the stage of which sometimes 
measured sixty yards, and which would contain many 
thousands of spectators; the mouth, also, answered the 
purpose of a sounding board, or speaking-trumpet to assist 
in conveying the voice to every part of the vast building. 
The characters, too, were made known by a conventional 
costume : old men wore ample robes of white; young men 
were attired in gay particoloured clothes ; rich men in 
purple ; soldiers in scarlet ; poor men and slaves in dark- 
coloured and scanty dresses. 



CHARACTERS AND MUSTC. 81 

The names assigned to the characters of the Roman 
comedy have always an appropriate meaning. Young 
men, for example, are Pamphilus, " dear to all ;" 
Charinns, "gracious;" Phaedria, "joyous:" old men are 
Simo, " flat-nosed," such a physiognomy being consi- 
dered indicative of a cross-grained disposition : Chremes, 
from a word signifying troubled with phlegm. Slaves 
generally bear the name of their native country, as 
Syrus, Phrygia ; Davus, a Dacian ; Byrrhia, a native of 
Pyrrha in Caria ; Dorias, a Dorian girl ; a vain-glorious 
soldier is Thraso, from Opaoo?, boldness ; a parasite, 
Grnatho, from yvaOo?, the jaw ; a nurse, Sophrona 
(discreet) ; a freedman, Sosia, as having been spared in 
war; a young girl is Gly cerium, from y\vKv?, sweet; 
a judge is Crito ; a courtesan, Chrysis, from yjpvao^, gold. 
These examples will be sufficient to illustrate the practice 
adopted by the Comic writers. 

It is very difficult to understand the relation which 
music bore to the exhibition of Roman comedy. It is 
clear that there was always a musical accompaniment, and 
that the instruments used were flutes ; the lyre was only 
used in tragedy, because in comedy there was no chorus 
or lyric portion. The flutes were at first small and 
simple ; but in the time of Horace were much larger 
and more powerful, as well as constructed with more 
numerous stops and greater compass. 1 

Flutes were of two kinds. Those played with the right 
hand (tibiae dextrse) were made of the upper part of the 
reed, and like the modern fife or octave flute emitted a high 
sound : they were therefore suitable to lively and cheerful 
melodies ; and this kind of music, known by the name of 
the Lydian mode, was performed upon a pair of tibia? 
dextrse. The left-handed flutes (tibia? sinistra?) were 
pitched an octave lower : their tones were grave and fit 
for solemn music. The mode denominated Tyrian, or 

1 Ep. ad Pison. 202. 



82 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Sarrane, 1 was executed with a pair of tibia? sinistra?. If 
the subject of the play was serio-comic, the music was in 
the Phrygian mode, and the flutes used were impares 
(unequal), i. e., one for the right, the other for the left 
hand. 2 In tragedy the lyrical portion was sung to music 
and the dialogue declaimed. But if that were the case in 
comedy, it is difficult to imagine what corresponded to 
the lyrical portion, and therefore where music was used. 
Quintilian informs us that scenic modulation was a simple, 
easy chant, 3 resembling probably intonation in our cathe- 
drals. Such a practice would aid the voice considerably ; 
and if so, the theory of Colman is probably correct, that 
there was throughout some accompaniment, but that the 
music arranged for the soliloquies (in which Terence 
especially abounds) was more laboured and complicated 
than that of the dialogue. 4 

In order to understand the principles which regulated 
the Roman comic metres, some remarks must be made 
on the manner in which the language itself was affected 
by the common conversational pronunciation. In most 
languages there is a natural tendency to abbreviation and 
contraction. As the object of language is the expression 
of thought, few are inclined to take more trouble or to 
expend more time than is absolutely necessary for convey- 
ing their meaning : this attention to practical utility and 
convenience is the reason for all elliptical forms in gram- 
matical constructions, and also for all abbreviated methods 
of pronunciation by slurring or clipping, or, to use the 



1 From Tzur, *yjtf. 

2 Colman illustrates the preface to his translation of Terence with an 
engraving from a bas-relief in the Farnese Palace, in which these flutes are 
introduced. The original represents a scene in the Andria, and contains 
Simo, Davus, Chremes, and Dromo, with a knotted cord. 

3 I. O. ii. 10. 

4 Donatus says, " Diverbia (the dialogues) histriones pronuntiabant ; can- 
tica (the soliloquies) vero temperabantuv modis non a poet& sed a perito 
artis musicDe factis." 



LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 83 

language of gTammariaiis, by apocope, syncope, syndesis, 
or era sis. 

The experience of every one proves how different is 
the impression which the sound of a foreign language 
makes upon the ear, when spoken by another, from what 
it makes upon the eye when read even by one who is 
perfectly acquainted with the theory of pronunciation. 
Until the ear is habituated, it is easier for an Englishman 
to speak French than to understand it when spoken. If 
we consider attentively the manner in which we speak 
our own language, it is astonishing how many letters 
and even syllables are slurred over and omitted: the 
accented syllable is strongly and firmly enunciated, the 
rest, especially in long words, are left to take care of 
themselves, and the experience of the hearer and his 
acquaintance with the language find no difficulty in 
supplying the deficiency. This is universally the case, 
except in careful and deliberate reading, and in measured 
and stately declamation. 

With regard to the classical languages, the foregoing 
observations hold good. In a slighter degree, indeed, with 
respect to the Greek, for the delicacy of their ear, their 
attention to accent and quantity, not only in poetry but 
in oratory, and even in conversation, caused them to give 
greater effect to every syllable, and especially to the 
vowel sounds. But even in Greek poetry elision some- 
times prevents the disagreeable effect of a hiatus, and in 
the transition from the one dialect to the other, the 
numerous vowels of the Ionic assume the contracted form 
of the Attic. 

The resemblance between the practice of the Eomans 
and that of modern nations is very remarkable ; with 
them the mark of good taste was ease — the absence of 
effort, pedantry, and affectation. As they principally 
admired facility in versification so they sought it in 
pr< Hiunci ation likewise . To speak with m outhing (hiulce) , 

r 9 



84 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

with a broad accent (late, vaste), was to speak like a clown 
and not like a gentleman (rustice et inurbaniter). Cicero 1 
admired the soft, gentle, equable tones of the female voice, 
and considered the pronunciation of the eloquent and 
cultivated Lselia as the model of purity and perfection : 
he thought that she spoke as Plautus or Nsevius might 
have spoken. Again, he speaks of the habit which Cotta 
had of omitting the iota; pronouncing, for example, 
dominus, dom'nus, as a prevalent fashion ; and although 
he says, 2 that such an obscuration argues negligence, he, 
on the other hand, applies to the opposite fault a term 
(putidius) which implies the most offensive affectation. 
Prom these observations, we must expect to find that 
Latin as it was pronounced was very different from Latin 
as it is written; that this difference consisted in abbreviation 
either by the omission of sounds altogether, or by con- 
traction of two sounds into one ; and that these processes 
would take place especially in those syllables which in 
poetry are not marked by the ictus or beat, or in common 
conversation by the stress or emphasis. Even in the more 
artificial poetry and oratory of the Augustan age, in 
which quantity was more rigidly observed by the Eoman 
imitators than by the Greek originals, we find traces of 
this tendency ; and Virgil does not hesitate to use in his 
stately heroics such forms as aspris for asperis, semustum 
for semrustum, oraclum for oraculum, maniplus for mani- 
pulus; and, like Terence, to make rejicere (relcere) a dac- 
tyle. 3 A number of the most common words, sanctioned 
by general usage, and incorporated into the language 
when in its most perfect state, were contractions — such as 
amassent for amavissent, concio for conventio, cogo from 
con and ago, surgo from sub and rego, mala for maxilla, 
pomeridianus from post-mediam-diem, and other instances 
too numerous to mention.. 



Cic. de Orat. iii. 45. 2 Ibid. 41. 

3 Phorin. Prol 18 : Eel. iii. 96. 



METRICAL LICENSES. 85 

But in the earlier periods when literature was addressed 
still more to the ear than to the eye, when the Greek 
metres were as yet unknown, and even when, after their 
introduction, exact observation of Greek rules was not yet 
necessary, we find as might be expected these principles 
of the language carried still further. They pervade the 
poems of Livius and Ennius, and the Eoman tragedies, 
even although their style is necessarily more declamatory 
than that of the comic writers ; but in the latter we have 
a complete representation of Latin as it was commonly 
pronounced and spoken, and but little trammelled or 
confined by a rigid adhesion to the Greek metrical 
laws. In the prologues, indeed, which are of the nature 
of declamation and not of free and natural conversation, 
more care is visible ; the iambic trimeters in which they 
are written fall upon the ear with a cadence similar to those 
of the Greek, with scarcely any license except an occasional 
spondee in the even places. But in the scenes little more 
seems to have been attended to, than that the verse 
should have the required number of feet, and the 
syllables pronounced the right quantity, in accordance 
with the widest license which the rules of Greek prosody 
allowed. What syllables should be slurred, was left to 
be decided by the common custom of pronunciation. 

Besides the Licenses commonly met with in the poets 
of the Augustan age, the following mutilations are the 
most usual in the poetical language of the age of which 
we are treating : — 

1 . The final s might be elided even before a consonant, 
and hence the preceding vowel was made short : thus 
malls became mali', on the same principle that in Augustan 
poetry audisne was contracted into audm'. Thus the 
short vowel would suffer elision before another, and the 
following line of Terence would consequently be thus 
scanned : — 

Ut ma | lis gatt| cleat all | en' atq' | ex In | commo|dls. 



86 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

2. Vowels and even consonants were slurred over; 
hence Liberius became Lib'rius ; Adolescens, Adlescens ; 
Vehemens, Yemens ; Yoluptas, Yluptas (like the French 
voila, via) ; meum, eum, suum, siet, fuit, Deos, ego, 
ille, tace, became monosyllables ; and facio, sequere, &c, 
dissyllables. 

3. M and D were syncopated in the middle of words : 
thus enimvero became en'vero ; quidem and modo 
qu'en and mo'o, circuinventus, circ'ventus. 

4. Conversely d was added to me, te, and se, when 
followed by a vowel, as Eeliquit med homo, &c, and in 
Plautus, med erga. 

Observations of such principles as these, enable us to 
reduce all the metres of Terence, and nearly all of Plautus, 
to iambic and trochaic, especially to iambic senarii and 
trochaic tetrameters. Many of those which defy the 
attempt have become, by the injudicious treatment of 
transcribers or commentators, wrongly arranged: for 
example, one of four lines in the Andria of Terence, 
which has always proved a difficulty, might be thus 
arranged : — 

Inna | ta cui j quaro. tant' | ut siet | vecor | dia ; 

instead of the usual unmanageable form — 

Tanta vecordia innata cuiquam ut siet. Andr. iv. 1. 

Yolcatius Sedigitus, a critic and grammarian, assigns 
an order of merit to the authors of Eoman comedy in 
the following passage : — 

Multos incertos certare hanc rem vidimus 
Palmam poetse comico cui deferant. 
Eum, me judice, errorem dissolvam tibi ; 
Ut contra si quis sentiat, nihil sentiat. 
Cgecilio palmam Statio do comico. 
Plautus secundus facile exsuperat cseteros. 
Dein Nsevius qui servet pretium, tertius est. 
Si erit, quod quarto dabitur Licinio. 
Post insequi Licinium facio Atilium. 



TITIS IfACCIUS PLAUTUS. ^7 

In Bexto Bequitur hos loco Terentius. 
Turpilius septimum, Trabea octavum obtinet ; 
Nodo loco esse facile facio Lusciuni. 
Decimum addo causa antiquitatis Eimium. 

Vvlc. Sedig. ap. Gel. lib. xv. 24. 

However correct this judgment may be, Plautus is the 
oldest, if not the most celebrated of those who have not 
as yet been mentioned. 

PLAUTUS. 

T. Maccius Plant us was a contemporary of Ennius, for it 
is generally supposed that he was born twelve years later, 1 
and died fifteen years earlier 2 than the founder of the new 
school of Latin poetry. The nourishing period, therefore, 
of both coincide. He was a native of Sarsina, in TJmbria, 
but was very young when he removed to Rome. Very 
little is known respecting his life ; but it is universally 
admitted that he was of humble origin, and owing to the 
prevalence of this tradition we fmdiPlautinceprosapice homo, 
used as a proverbial expression. The numerous examples 
in his comedies of vulgar taste and low humour are in 
favour of this supposition. 

He had no early gentlemanlike associations to interfere 
with his delineations of Eoman character in low life. His 
contemporary, Ennius, was a gentleman, Plautus was not ; 
education did not overcome his vulgarity, although it 
produced a great effect upon his language and style, which 
were more refined and cultivated than those of his pre- 
decessors. Plautus must have lived and associated with 
the class whose manners he describes, hence his pictures 
are correct and truthful. 

The class from which his representations of Eoman 
life was taken is that of the cerarii, who consisted of clients, 
the sons of freedmen, and the half-enfranchised natives 



a. u. C 527 ; B. c. 227. a a. u. C. 570 ; b c. 184. Sec Cic. Brut. 15. 



88 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

of Italian towns. His plots are Greek, his personages 
Greek, and the scene is laid in Greece and her colonies ; 
bnt the morality, manners, sentiments, wit, and humonr, 
were those of that mixed, half-foreign, class of the inhabit- 
ants of the capital, which stood between the slave and the 
free-born citizen. One of his characters is, as was observed 
by Mebuhr, 1 not Eoman, for the parasite is a Greek, not 
a Roman character, bnt then a flatterer is by profession 
a citizen of the world, and his business is to conform him- 
self to the manners of every society. How readily that 
character became naturalized, we are informed by some of 
the most amusing passages in the satires of Horace and 
Juvenal. 

The humble occupation which his poverty compelled 
him to follow was calculated to draw out and foster the 
comic talent for which he was afterwards distinguished, 
for Yarro 2 tells us that he acted as a stage-carpenter 
(operarius) to a theatrical company ; he adds, also, that 
he was subsequently engaged in some trade in which he 
was unsuccessful, and was reduced to the necessity of 
earning his daily bread by grinding in a mill. To this 
degrading labour, which was not usually performed by 
men, except as a punishment for refractory slaves, it has 
been supposed that he owed his cognomen, Asinius, which 
is sometimes appended to his other names. Eitzsclil, 
however, has most ingeniously and satisfactorily proved 
that the name of Asinius is a corruption of Sarsinas 
(native of Sarsina) : he supposes that Sarsinas became 
Arsinas, that this was afterwards written Arsin, then 
Asin, and that this was finally considered as the repre- 
sentative of Asinius. 

This view is further supported by the fact that, in all 
cases in which the name Asinius is used, the poet is called 
not Asinius Plautus, but Plautus Asinius, like Livius Pata- 



Lect. lxx. a A. GeU. iii. 3. 



ROMAN TASTE FOR COMEDY. 89 

vinus, this being the proper position for the ethnic name. 
Another error respecting the poet's name has been per- 
petuated throughout all the editions of his works, although 
it is not found in any manuscript. It was discovered by 
RitzsehF whilst examining- the palimpsest MS. in the 
Ambrosian Library at Milan. He thus found that his 
real names were Titus Maccius, and not Marcus Accius. 
The name Plautus was given him because he had flat 
leet, this being the signification of the word in the 
Umbrian language. Niebuhr, 2 although he does not 
deny his povert}^ gives no credit to the story of his work- 
ing at a mill. 

The earliest comedies which he wrote are said to have 
been entitled " Addictus," and " Saturio," but they are 
not contained amongst the twenty which are now extant. 
As soon as he became an author there can be no doubt 
that he emerged from his state of poverty and obscurity, 
for he had no rival during his whole career, unless Csecilius 
Statius, a man of very inferior talent, can be considered 
one. Comedies began now to be in great demand : the 
taste for the comic drama was awakened; it was pre- 
cisely the sort of literature likely to be acceptable to an 
active, bustling, observant people like the Eomans. 
They liked shows of every kind, and public speaking, and 
had always then* eyes and their ears open, loved jokes and 
rude satire and boisterous inirth, and would appreciate 
bold and fearless delineations of character, which they 
met with in their every-day life. The demand for the 
public games, therefore, began to be quite as great as the 
supply, and the theatrical managers would take care 
always to have a new play in rehearsal, in case they 
should be called upon for a public representation. 

Plautus had no aristocratic patrons, like Ennius and 
Terence — probably his humour was too broad, and his 



1 See Smith's Biog. Diet. s. v. a Lect. on Rom. Hist. lxx. 



90 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

taste not refined enough, to please the Scipios and Lselii, 
and their fastidious associates. Horace finds fault with 
Plautus because his wit was not sufficiently gentleman- 
like, as well as his numbers not sufficiently harmonious. 
Probably the higher classes might have observed similar 
deficiencies ; with the masses, however, the comedies of 
Plautus, notwithstanding their faults, retained their ori- 
ginal popularity even in the Augustan age. The Eoman 
public were his patrons. His very coarseness would recom- 
mend him to the rude admirers of the Fescinnine songs and 
the Atellan Fabulce. His careless prosody and inharmo- 
nious verses would either escape the not over-refined ears of 
his audience, or be forgiven for the sake of the fun which 
they contained. Life, bustle, surprise, unexpected situa- 
tions, sharp, sprightly, brilliant, sparkling raillery, that 
knew no restraint nor bounds, carried the audience with 
him. He allowed no respite, no time for dulness or 
weariness. To use an expression of Horace, he hurried 
on from scene to scene, from incident to incident, from 
jest to jest, so that his auditors had no opportunity for 
feeling fatigue. 

Another cause of his popularity was, that although 
Greek was the fountain from which he drew his stores, 
and the metres of Greek poetry the framework in which 
he set them, his wit, his mode of thought, his language, 
were purely Eoman. He had lived so long amongst 
Pomans that he had caught their national spirit, and this 
spirit was reflected throughout his comedies. The inci- 
dents of them might have taken place in the streets of 
Pome, so skilful was he in investing them with a Poman 
dress. 

His style too was truly Latin, and Latin of the very 
purest and most elegant kind. 1 He did not, like Cato 
and Ennius, carry his admiration for Greek so far as to 



Quint, x. 1, 99 . 



EPIGRAM BY VARRO. 91 

11 enrich " his native tongue with new and foreign words. 
Nor would this feature he without some effect in gaining 
him the sympathy of the masses. They admire elegance 
of language if it is elegant simplicity. They appreciate 
well-chosen and well-arranged sentences, if the words are 
such as fall familiarly and, therefore, intelligibly on their 
ears. 

The coarseness of Plautus, however, was the coarseness 
of innuendo, and even if the allusion was indelicate it was 
veiled in decent language. This quality of his wit called 
forth the approbation of Cicero. 1 But it is difficult to 
conceive how he could compare him, in this particular, 
with the old Athenian comedy, the obscenity of which is 
so gross and palpable, as to constitute the sole blemish of 
those delightful compositions. 

The following laudatory epigram written by Yarro is 
found in the Noctes Atticae of A. Grellius : 2 — 

Postquam est mortem aptus Plautus, comcEdia luget, 

Scena est deserta dein risus ludu' jocusque, 

Et numeri innumeri simul omnes collacrumarunt. 

The same grammarian paid to his style a compliment 
similar to that which had been paid to Plato, by saying, 
that if the Muses spoke in Latin they would borrow the 
language of Plautus. 3 Whatever might have been the 
faults of the Plautian comedy it maintained its position 
on the Roman stage for at least five centuries, and was 
acted as late as the reign of Dioclesian. 

It does not appear that Plautus ever attained the full 
privileges of a Eoman citizen. Probably he had no 
powerful friends to press his claims, and therefore enjoyed 
no more than the Italian franchise to the end of his days. 
No fewer than one hundred and thirty comedies have 
been attributed to him, but of these many were spurious. 
Varro considers the twenty which are now extant genuine, 



De Off. i. 29. i Lib. i. 24. 3 Quint, x. 1, 99. 



92 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

together with the Vidularia, of which only a few lines 
remain, and those only in the palimpsest MS. already 
mentioned. The rest, the titles of which alone survive, 
are of doubtful authority. 

All the comedies of Plautus, except the AmpJiitruo, 
were adapted from the new comedy of the Greeks. The 
statement that he imitated the Sicilian Epicharmus, 1 and 
founded the Mencechmi on one of his comedies, rests only 
on a vague tradition. There can be no doubt that he 
studied also both the old and the middle comedy ; but 
still Menander, Diphilus, and Philemon furnished him the 
originals of his plots. The popularity of Plautus was 
not confined to Rome, either republican or imperial. 
Dramatic writers of modern times have recognized the 
effectiveness of his plots, and therefore have adopted or 
imitated them, and they have been translated into most 
of the European languages. The following is a brief 
sketch of the subjects of his extant comedies. 

i. Amphitruo. This is the only piece which Plautus 
borrowed from the middle Attic comedy: the plot is 
founded on the well-known story of Jupiter and Alcmena, 
and has been imitated both by Moliere and Dry den. 

ii., in., iv. The Asinaria, Casina, and Mercator, depict 
a state of morals so revolting that it is impossible to 
dwell upon them. 

v. In the Aulularia, a very amusing play, a miser 
finds a pot of gold (aulula), and hides it with the greatest 
care. His daughter is demanded in marriage by an old 
man named Megadorus, the principal recommendation to 
whose suit is, that he is willing to take her without a 
dowry. Meanwhile the slave of her young lover steals 
the gold, and, as may be conjectured, for no more of the 
play is preserved, the lover restores the gold, and the old 
man, in the joy of his heart, gives him his daughter. 



1 Hor. Ep.'ii. 1,58. 



BACCHIDES — CAPTIVI — CURCUL10 — CISTELLARIA. 93 

This comedy suggested to Moliere tlie plot of L'Avare, 
the best play which he ever wrote, and one in which he 
far surpasses the original. Two attempts have been made 
to supply the lost scenes, which may be found in the 
Dolphin and Variorum edition. 

VI. The Bacchides are two twin sisters, one of whom 
is beloved by her sister's lover. He does not know that 
there are two, and, misled by the similarity of the name, 
thinks himself betrayed. Hence arise amusing situations 
and incidents, but at length an eclaircissement takes place. 

vii. The Captivi for its style, sentiments, moral, and 
the structure of the plot, is incomparably the best comedy 
of Plautus. In a war between the iEtolians and Eleians, 
Philopolemus, an iEtolian, the son of Hegio, is taken 
prisoner, whilst Philocrates is captured by the iEtolians. 
Philocrates and his slave Tyndarus are purchased by Hegio, 
with a view to recover his son by an exchange of prisoners. 
The master and slave, however, agree to change places ; 
and thus Philocrates is sent back to his country, valued 
only as a slave. Hegio discovers the trick and condemns 
Tyndarus to fetters and hard labour. Philocrates, how- 
ever, returns, and brings back Philopolemus with him, 
and it also turns out that Tyndarus is a son of Hegio 
whom he had lost in his infancy. 

viii. The Curculio derives its name from a parasite, 
who is the hero, and who acts his part in a plot full of 
fraud and forgery; the only satisfactory point in the 
comedy being the deserved punishment of an infamous 
panclar. 

ix. In the Cistellaria, Demipho, a Lemnian, promises 
his daughter to Alcesimarchus, who is in love with 
Silenium. The young lady has fallen into the hands of 
a courtesan, who endeavours to force her into a vicious 
course of life ; she, however, steadily refuses ; and it is at 
length discovered, by means of a box of toys (cistella), that 
she is the illegitimate daughter of Demipho, and had 



94 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

been exposed as an infant. Her virtue is rewarded by 
her being happily married to lier lover. 

x. The Epidicus was evidently a favourite play with 
the author, for he makes one of the characters in another 
comedy say that he loves it as dearly as himself. 1 The 
plot turns on the common story of a lost child recognized. 
The intrigue, which is remarkably clever, is managed by 
Epidicus, a cunning slave, who gives the name to the 
play. 

xi. The Mostellaria is exceedingly lively and amusing. 
A young man, in his father's absence, makes the paternal 
mansion a scene of noisy and extravagant revelry. In 
the midst of it the father returns, and in order to prevent 
discovery, a slave persuades him that the house is 
haunted. When he discovers the trick he is very angry, 
but ultimately pardons both his son and the slave. The 
name is derived from Mostellum, the diminutive of Mon- 
strum, a prodigy, or supernatural visitor. 

xii. The Mensechnii is a Comedy of Errors, arising 
out of the exact likeness between two brothers, one of 
whom was stolen in infancy, and the other wanders in 
search of him, and at last finds him in great affluence at 
Epidamnus. It furnished the plot to Shakspeare's play, 
and likewise to the comedy of Eegnard, which bears the 
name of the original. 

xiii. The Miles Grloriosus was taken from the 'AAaf wv 
(Boaster) of the Greek comic drama. Its hero, Pyrgopo- 
linices, is the model of all the blustering, swaggering 
captains of ancient and modern comedy. The braggadocio 
carries off the mistress of a young Athenian, who follows 
him, and takes up his abode in the next house to that in 
which the girl is concealed. Like Pyramus and Thisbe 
the lovers have secret interviews through a hole in the 
party-wall. (The device being borrowed from the 



Bacch. ii. 2. 



PSEUDOLUS — PCENULUS. 95 

" Phantom," of Menander.) 1 When they are discovered 
the soldier is induced to resign the lady by being per- 
suaded that another is desperately in love with him, but 
the only reward which he gets is a good beating for his 
pains. 

Xiv. In the Psendolns a cunning slave of that name 
procures, by a false memorandum, a female slave for his 
young master ; and when the fraud is discovered the matter 
is settled by the payment of the price by a complaisant 
father. Notwithstanding the simplicity of the plot the 
action is bustling and full of intrigue ; and from a passage 
of Cicero, 2 it appears that this play and the Truculentus 
were favourites with the author himself. The procurer 
in this comedy was one of the characters in which. Eoscius 
especially excelled. 

xv. The Pcenulus derives its name from its romantic 
plot. A young Carthaginian slave is adopted by an old 
bachelor, who leaves him a good inheritance. He falls in 
love with a girl, a Carthaginian like himself, who had 
been kidnapped with her sister, and now belonged to a 
procurer. The arrival of the father leads to a discovery 
that they are free-born, and that they are the first cousins 
of the young man. Thus it comes to pass that the girls 
are rescued, and the lovers united. The most curious 
portion of this comedy is that in which Hanno, the father, 
is represented as talking Punic ; 3 and his words bear so 
close a resemblance to the Hebrew that commentators 



1 The plot of the Phasma of Menander is as follows : — A woman who has 
married a second husband has a daughter concealed in the next house, 
with whom she has secret interviews by means of a communication through 
the party- wall. In order the better to carry on her clandestine plan, she 
pretends that she has intercourse with a supernatural being, who visits 
her in answer to her invocations. Her step-son by accident sees the 
maiden, and is at first awe-struck, thinking that he had beheld a goddess ; 
but, discovering the truth, he is captivated with her beauty. A happy 
marriage, with the consent of all parties, concludes the play. 

8 De Sen. 50. ■ 3 Act v. scene i. 



96 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

liave expressed them in Hebrew characters, and rendered 
them, after a few emendations, capable of translation. 1 

xvi. The tricks played npon a procurer by a slave, 
aided by a Persian parasite, furnish the slender plot of 
the Persa. 

xvii. The Eudens derives its name from the rope of 
a fishing-net, and, with the exception perhaps of the 
Captivi, is the most affecting and pleasing of all the 
twenty plays. The morality is pure, the sentiments ele- 
vated, the poetic justice complete. A female child has 
fallen into the hands of a procurer. Her lover in vain 
endeavours to ransom her, and being shipwrecked, the 
toys with which she played in infancy are lost in the 
waves, but are eventually brought to shore in the net of a 
fisherman. She is thus recognized by her father, and is 
married to her lover, whilst the procurer is utterly 
ruined by the loss of his property in the wreck. 

xvi ii. Stichus is the name of the slave on whom the 
intrigue of the play which bears this name mainly de- 
pends. The plot is very simple. Two brothers marry 
two sisters, and are ruined by extravagant living ; they 
determine therefore to go abroad and repair their fortunes. 
After they have been many years absent the ladies' father 
wishes them to marry again. They, however, steadily 
refuse, and their constancy is rewarded by the return of 
their husbands with large fortunes. 

xix. The Trinummus is a translation from the The- 
saurus of the Greek comic poet Philemon. 2 It de- 
rived its Latin title from the incident of the informer 
being bribed with three nummi. 3 An old merchant on 
leaving home places his son and daughter, together with 
a treasure which he has buried in his house, under the 
guardianship of his friend Callicles. The son squanders 



1 See Plaut. Ed. Var. pp. 1320 and 2095. 2 See Prol. 18. 

3 See act iv. scene ii. 



TRUCULENTUS — PROLOGUES. 07 

nis father's property, and is even forced to sell his lionse, 
which Callicles purchases. Soon a young man of good 
family and fortune makes proposals for the daughter's 
hand, and Callicles is at a loss to know how to give her a 
dowry without saying something about the treasure. At 
length he hires a man to pretend that he has come from 
the absent lather, and lias brought one thousand pieces of 
gold. The return of the father interferes with the plan ; 
but everj-thing is explained, the daughter is married, and 
the son forgiven. 

xx. The Truculentus, although the moral picture 
which it presents is detestable, is remarkably clever, 
both for the variety of incidents and the graphic delinea- 
tions of character which it contains. The artful courte- 
san who dupes and ruins her lovers ; the three lovers 
themselves — one a man of the town, another an unpolished 
but generous rustic, the third a stupid and conceited 
soldier ; and, lastly, the slave, whose rude sagacity and 
bluff hatred of courtesans expose him to the imputation 
of being actually savage (truculentus), are powerfully 
drawn ; but, notwithstanding its merits, it is not a play 
which can possibly please the tastes and sentiments of 
modern times. 

Plautus must not be dismissed without some notice of 
his prologues. The prologue of the Greek drama prepared 
the audience for the action of the play, by narrating all 
the previous events of the story, which were necessary in 
order to understand the plot. That of the modern stage 
is an address of the poet to the spectators, praying for in- 
dulgence, deprecating severe criticism, enlivened frequently 
by characteristic sketches and satirical observations on the 
manners and habits of the age. In these features it some- 
times resembles the parabasis of the old Attic comedy. 
The prologues of Plautus united all these objects ; and 
whilst they introduced the comedy, their amusing gaiety 
was calculated to put the audience in good humour and 

H 



98 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

secure their applause. The shrewd knowledge which the 
author displayed in them of the character of his fellow- 
countrymen claimed their sympathies, and called forth 
their prejudices in his favour ; whilst their polish and 
finish must have been appreciated by an assembly whose 
attention had not begun to flag or to weary. Some are 
long pieces. That of the Amphitruo, which is the longest, 
extends to upwards of one hundred and fifty lines. That 
of the Trinummus takes the unusual form of a brief 
allegorical dialogue between Luxury and her daughter 
Poverty. 



( 99 ) 



CHAPTER VII. 

STATIUS COMPARED WITH MENANDER — CRITICISM OF CICERO — HYPO- 
THESES RESPECTING THE EARLY LIFE OF TERENCE — ANECDOTE 
BELATED BY DONATUS — STYLE AND MORALITY OF TERENCE — 
ANECDOTE OF HIM RELATED BY CORNELIUS NEPOS — HIS PECUNIARY 
CIRCUMSTANCES AND DEATH— PLOTS AND CRITICISM OF HIS COME- 
DIES—THE REMAINING COMIC POETS. 

O&CILIUS STATIUS. 

Between Plautus and Terence flourished Csecilius Sta- 
tius, whom Yolcatius, as well as Cicero, 1 places at the 
head of the list of Roman comic poets. He was an 
emancipated slave, and was born at Milan. The time of 
his birth is unknown, but he died a.u.c. 586, and was 
therefore a contemporary of Ennius. He did not depart 
from the established custom of transferring the comedy 
of the Greek stage to that of Eome, and, as far as a judg- 
ment can be formed from the titles of his forty -five 
comedies which are extant, they were all " Palliatce!' 
The collection of fragments remaining of his works is a 
large one, but they are not sufficiently long or connected 
to test the favourable opinion entertained by the critics 
of ancient times. 

Aulus Gellius 2 enables us to estimate the powers of 
C. Statius as a translator by a comparison of two 
passages taken from his " Plocius " with the original 
of Menander. The result is, that the usual fault of 
translations is too plainly manifest, namely, the loss of 
the spirit and vigour. " Our comedies," he remarks, " are 



1 De Opt. Gen. Die. i. 2 Noct. Att. ii. 23. 

H 2 



100 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

written in an elegant and graceful style, and may be 
read with pleasure; but if compared with the Greek 
originals, they fall so far short that the arms of Glaucus 
could not have been more inferior to those of Diomede : 
the Greek is full of emotion, wit, and liveliness; the 
Latin dull and uninteresting/' Cicero, likewise, and Varro 
have pronounced judgment upon his merits and demerits. 
The sum and substance of their criticisms appear to be, 
that his excellences consisted in the conduct of the plot, 1 
in dignity, 2 and in pathos, 3 whilst his fault was not 
sufficient care in preserving the purity of Latin style. 

Cicero, 4 though not without hesitation, assigns the 
palm to him amongst the writers of Latin comedy, as he 
awards that of epic poetry to Ennius, and that of tragedy 
to Pacuvius. 5 He says, on the other hand, 5 that the 
bad Latin of Caecilius and Pacuvius formed exceptions to 
the usual style of their age, which was as commendable 
for its Latinity as for its innocence. And in a letter to 
Atticus, 6 he writes : — " I said, not as CaBcilius, Mane ut 
ex portu in Piramm, but as Terence, whose plays, on 
account of their elegant Latinity, were thought to have 
been written by C. Lselius, Heri aliquot adolescentuli 
coimus in Pirseum." Horace, 7 without stating his own 
opinion, gives, as that commonly received in his day, 
that Ca3cilius is superior in dignity {gravitate), Terence 
in skill {arte). 

The prologue of Terence's comedy of the Hecyra 
proves that the earlier plays of Ca3cilius had a great 
struggle to atchieve success. The actor who delivers it, 
an old favourite with the public, and probably the 
manager, apologizes for bringing forward a play which 
had been once rejected {exacta), on the ground that by 
perseverance in a similar course he had caused the recep- 



Varro. 2 Horace. 3 Varro. 4 De Opt. Gen. Orat. i. 

3 Brut. 258. 6 Lib. vii. 3. 7 Ep. ii. 1. 



HYPOTHESES RESPECTING TERENCE. 101 

fcion and approval of not one but many of the come- 
dies oi' Csecilius which had been unsuccessful, and adds, 
that of those which did succeed, some had a narrow 
escape. 

P. TERENTIDS AEER. 

P. Terentius Afer was a slave in the family of a 
Roman senator, P. Terentius Lucanus. His early his- 
tory is involved in obscurity, but he is generally supposed 
to have been born a.u.c. 561. 1 His cognomen, Afer, 
points to an African origin, for it was a common custom 
to distinguish slaves by an ethnical name. Whether 
there is any sufficient authority for the tradition that 
he was a native of Carthage is uncertain. He could 
not, as was rightly observed by Fenestella, 2 have been 
actually a prisoner of war, because he was both born and 
died in the interval between the first and second Punic 
Wars ; nor, if he had been captured by the Numidians 
or Grsetulians in any war which these tribes carried on 
with Carthage, could he have come into the possession 
of a Eoman General by purchase, for there was no 
commercial intercourse between these nations and Eome 
until after the destruction of Carthage. 

Another hypothesis has been suggested, which is by 
no means improbable. 3 During the interval which 
elapsed between the first and second Punic Wars, the 
Carthaginians were involved in wars with their own 
mercenaries, the Numidians, and the southern Iberians. 
Some embassies from Eome also visited Carthage. Te- 
rence, therefore, may possibly have been taken prisoner 
in one of these wars, have been purchased by a Eoman 
in the Carthaginian slave-market, and so have been 
carried to Eome. What his condition was in the house 



1 B. c. 193. 2 See Life of Ter. in Ed. Varior. 

3 See Smith's Diet, of Ant. s. v. 



102 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

of Lucanus is not known ; but it is clear that he had 
opportunities of cultivating his natural talents, and 
acquiring that refined and masterly acquaintance with 
all the niceties and elegancies of the Latin language 
which his comedies exhibited; and it is probable, also, 
that very early in life he obtained his freedom. 

His first essay as a dramatic author was " The Andrian," 
perhaps the most interesting, certainly the most affect- 
ing, of all his comedies. Terence, an unknown and 
obscure young man, offered his play to the Curule iEdiles. 
They, accordingly, we are told, referred the new candi- 
date to the experienced judgment of Csecilius Statius, then 
at the height of his popularity. Terence, in humble 
garb, was introduced to the poet whilst he was at supper, 
and, seated on a low stool near the couch on which 
Ca3cilius was reclining, he commenced reading. He had 
finished but a few lines when Csecilius invited him to sit 
by him and sup with him. He rapidly ran through the 
rest of his play, and gained the unqualified admiration 
of his hearer. This story is related by Donatus, but 
whether there is any truth in it is very doubtful. It is, 
at any rate, certain that " The Andrian " was not brought 
forward immediately after obtaining this decision in its 
favour, for the date of its first representation 1 is two 
years subsequent to the death of Caacilius. 

Talents of so popular a kind as those of Terence, and 
a genius presenting the rare combination of all the fine 
and delicate touches which characterize true Attic senti- 
ment, without corrupting the native ingenuous purity of 
the Latin language, could not long remain in obscurity. 
He was soon eagerly sought for as a guest and a com- 
panion by those who could appreciate his powers. The 
great Eoman nobility, such as the Scipiones, the Lselii, 
the Scsevobe, and the Metelli, had a taste for literature. 



B.C. 166; a. u- c. 588. 



HIS STYLE AND MORALITY. 103 

Like the Ti/ranni in Sicily and Greece, and like some of 
the Italian princes in the middle ages, they assembled 
around them circles of literary men, of whom the polite 
and hospitable host himself formed the nucleus and 
centre. 

The purity and gracefulness of the style of Terence, 
"per quani dulces Latini leporis facetice nituerunt" 1 show 
that the conversation of his accomplished friends was not 
lost upon his correct ear and quick intuition. To these 
habits of good society may also be attributed the leading 
moral characteristics of his comedies. He invariably 
exhibits the humanity and benevolence of a cultivated 
mind. He cannot bear loathsome and disgusting vice : 
he deters the young from the unlawful indulgence of 
their passions by painting such indulgence as inconsistent 
with the refined habits and tastes of a gentleman. 

His truthfulness compels him to depict habits and 
practices which were recognized and allowed, as well by 
the manners of the Athenians, from whom his comedies 
were taken, as by the lax morality of Eoman fashionable 
society. ISTor can we expect from a heathen writer of 
comedy so high a tone of morality as to lash vice with 
the severe censure which the Christian feels it deserves, 
however venial society may pronounce it to be. It is as 
much as can be hoped for, if we find the principles of 
good taste brought forward on the stage to influence 
public morals. Even the code of Christian society too 
often contents itself with rebuking such vice as inter- 
feres with its own comfort or safety, and stigmatises 
conduct, not for its immorality, but for its being unbe- 
coming a gentleman. It is a standard which has its 
use, but it is not higher than the Terentian. 

And if the plays of Terence are compared with those 
of authors professing to be Christians, which form part 



Valerius Paterc. 



104 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

of the classical literature of the English nation, and were 
unblusliingly witnessed on their representation by some 
of both sexes, who, nevertheless, professed a regard for 
character, how immeasurably superior are the comedies 
of the heathen poet ! Point out to the young the 
greater light and knowledge which the Christian enjoys, 
and the plays of Terence may be read without moral 
danger. No amount of colouring and caution would be 
sufficient to shield the mind of an ingenuous youth from 
the imminent peril of being corrupted by those of 
Wycherly and Congreve. Pictures of Eoman manners 
must represent them as corrupt, or they would not be 
truthful; but often a good lesson is elicited from them. 
When the deceived wife reproachfully asks her offending 
husband with what face he can rebuke his son because 
he has a mistress, when he himself has two wives, 1 one 
is far more struck with the honour which the strictness 
of Eoman virtue paid to the nuptial tie, than offended at 
the lenient view which is taken of the young man's fault. 
The knaveries and tricks of Davus 2 meet with sufficient 
poetical justice in his fright and his flogging. The very 
dress in which the Meretrix, or woman of abandoned 
morals, was costumed, kept constantly before the eyes 
of the Eoman youth their grasping avarice, and therefore 
warned them of the ruin which awaited their victims ; 
and the well-known passage, 3 in which the loathsome 
habits of this class are described, must have been, as 
Terence himself says, a preservative of youthful virtue: — 

Nosse omnia hsec saluti est adolescentulis. 

The Pandar, who basely, for the sake of filthy lucre, minis- 
ters to the passions of the young, is represented as the 
most degraded and contemptible of mortals. The Para- 
site, who earns his meal by flattering and fawning on his 
rich patron, is made the butt of unsparing ridicule. 



Phorm. v. viii. 2 Andr. v. ii, 3 Eunuchus, v. iv. 



ANECDOTE RELATED BY NEPOS. 105 

And the timid, simple maiden, confiding too implicitly 
in the affections of her lover, and sacrificing her interests 
to that love, and not to Inst or love of gain, is painted 
in such colours as to command the spectator's pity and 
sympathy, and to call forth his approbation when she is 
deservedly reinstated in her position as an honourable 
matron. Lastly, her lover is not represented as a profli- 
gate, revelling in the indiscriminate indulgence of his 
passions, and rendering vice seductive by engaging man- 
ners and fascinating qualities ; but we feel that his sin 
necessarily results from the absence of a high tone of 
public morality to protect the young against temptation ; 
and in all cases the reality and permanency of his affec- 
tion for the victim of his wrongdoing is proved by his 
readiness and anxiety to become her husband. 

So far as it can be so, comedy was in the hands of 
Terence an instrument of moral teaching, for it can only 
be so indirectly by painting men and manners as they 
are, and not as they ought to be. 

It is said that the patrons of Terence assisted him in 
the composition of his comedies, or, at least, corrected 
their language and style, and embellished them by the 
insertion of scenes and passages. An anecdote is related 
by Cornelius Nepos, 1 which, if true, at once proves the 
point. He says that Lselius was at his villa near 
Puteoli during the festival of the Matronalia. On this 
holiday the power of the Roman ladies was absolute. 
Lselius was ordered by his wife to come to supper early. 
He excused himself on the ground that he was occupied, 
and begged not to be disturbed. When he appeared in 
the supper-room, he said he had never been so well 
satisfied with his compositions. He was asked for a 
specimen of what he had written, and immediately 
repeated a scene in the " Self- Tormentor " 2 of Terence. 



Fr. Incort. 6. i Satis pol, &c, iv. 4. 1. 



106 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Terence, however, gently refutes this story in the pro- 
logue to the "Adelphi," and gives it a positive con- 
tradiction in the prologue to the comedy in which the 
passage occurs. Perhaps he may at first have permitted 
the report to be credited for the sake of paying a 
compliment to his patron. 

There is a tradition that he lived and died in poverty, 
and this tale is perpetuated in the following lines by 
Porcius Licinius : — 

Nil Publius 
Scipio profuit, nihil ei Laelius, nil Furius, 
Tres per idem tempus qui agitabant nobiles facillume, 
Eorum ille opere ne domum quidein habuit conductitium 
Saltern ut esset quo referret obitum domini servulus. 

Nothing did Publius Scipio profit him ; 

Nothing did Lselius, nothing Furius ; 

At once the three great patrons of our bard. 

And yet so niggard of their bounty to him, 

He had not even wherewithal to hire 

A house in Rome to which a faithful slave 

Might bring the tidings of his master's death. Colman. 

The patrons of Terence, however, never deserved the 
reproach of meanness. Nor could the comic poet have 
been very poor. He received large sums for his comedies \ 
he had funds sufficient to reside for some time in Greece ; 
and at his death he possessed gardens on the Appian Way 
twenty jugera in extent. 

A mystery hangs over his death, which took place 
B.C. 158. x It is not known whether he died in Greece, 
or was lost at sea, together with all the comedies of 
Menander, which he had translated whilst in Greece, or 
whether, after embarking for Asia, he was, as Volcatius 
writes, never seen more :- — 

Ut Afer sex populo edidit comcedias 
Iter hinc in Asiam fecit, navim cum semel 
Conscendit visus nunquam est. Sic vita vacat. 

One daughter married to a Eoman knight survived him. 



Hier. Chron. 01. civ. 3. 



PLOT OF THE ANDRIAN. 107 

Six comedies by Terence remain, and it is probable 
that these are all that he ever wrote ; they belong to the 
class technically denominated Palliatce. 

" The Andrian!' 

" The Andrian " was exhibited at the Megalensian 
games, a.u.c. 5S8, 1 when the poet was in his twenty- 
seventh year. The mnsical accompaniment was per- 
formed on equal Antes, right-handed and left-handed 
(tibiis paribus dentins et sinistris) ; i. e., as the action was 
of a serio-comic character, the lively mnsic of the tibia? 
dextrce was nsed in the comic scenes ; the solemn sounds 
of the tibia? sinistra? accompanied the serious portion. 
The manners are Greek, and the scene is laid at Athens. 

The plot is as follows : — Glycerium, a young Athenian 
girl, is placed under the care of an Andrian, who educates 
her with his daughter Chrysis. On his death Chrysis 
migrates to Athens, taking Glycerium with her as her 
sister, and is driven by distress to become a courtesan. 
Pamphilus, the son of Simo, falls in love with Glycerium, 
and promises her marriage. Simo accidentally discovers 
his son's attachment in the following manner : — Chrysis 
dies, and at her funeral Glycerium imprudently approaches 
too near to the burning pile. Her lover rushes forward 
and embraces her, and affectionately expostulates with 
her for thus risking her life. " Dearest Glycerium !" he 
exclaims, " what are you doing ? why do you rush to 
destruction ?" Upon this the girl burst into a flood of 
tears, and threw herself into his arms. Simo had mean- 
while betrothed Pamphilus to Philumena, the daughter 
of Chremes ; and although he had discovered his son's 
passion, and Chremes had heard of the promise of mar- 
riage, he pretends that the marriage with Philumena 
shall still take place, in order that he may discover what 



1 b. c. 166. 



108 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

his son's real sentiments are. In this difficulty, Pam- 
philus applies to Davus, a cunning and clever slave, who 
advises him to offer no opposition. At this crisis Gly ce- 
rium is delivered of a child, which Davus causes to be 
laid at the door of Simo. Chremes sees the infant, and, 
understanding that Pamphilus is the father, refuses to 
give him his daughter. The opportune arrival of Crito, 
an Andrian, discovers to Chremes that Grlycerium is his 
own daughter, whom on a former absence from Athens 
he had entrusted to his brother Phania, now dead. Con- 
sequently Grlycerium is married to Pamphilus, and Philu- 
mena is given to a young lover, named Charinus, who 
had hitherto pressed his suit in vain. 

" The Andrian " was, as it deserved to be, eminently 
successful, and encouraged the young author to persevere 
in the career which he had chosen. The interest is well 
sustained, the action is natural, and many scenes touch- 
ing and pathetic, whilst the serious parts are skilfully 
relieved by the adroitness of Davus, and his cleverness in 
getting out of the scrapes in which his cunning involves 
him. Cicero 1 praises the funeral scene 2 as an example of 
that talent for narrative which Terence constantly dis- 
plays. The substance of his criticism is, that the poet 
has attained conciseness without the sacrifice of beauty ; 
and whilst he has avoided wearisome affectation, has not 
omitted any details which are agreeable and interesting. 
Nothing can be more 'beautiful than the struggle between 
the love and filial duty of Pamphilus, 3 which ends with 
his determination to yield to his father's will ; nothing 
more candid than his confession, or more upright than 
his earnest desire not to be suspected of suborning Crito. 

" The Andrian " has been closely imitated in the 
comedy of " The Conscious Lovers," by Sir Eichard 
Steele ; but in natural and graceful wit, as well as in- 



De Orat. ii. 81. 2 Act i. scene i. 3 Act v. scene iii. 25. 



PLOT OF THE EUNUCHUS. 109 

gonuity, the English play is far inferior to the Roman 

original. 

" Eunuchns." 

" The Eunuch" is a transcript of a comedy by Me- 
nander. Even the characters are the same, except that 
Gnatho and Thraso together occupy the place of Colax 
(the flatterer) in the original Greek. It was represented 
in the consulship of M. Valerius Messala and C. Fannius 
Strabo. 1 The musical accompaniment was Lydian. It 
was the most popular of all Terence's plays, and brought 
the author the largest sum of money that had ever been 
paid for a comedy previously, namely, 8,000 sestertii, a 
sum equivalent to about 65/. sterling. In vain Lavinius, 
Terence's most bitter rival, endeavoured to interrupt the 
performance, and to accuse the author of plagiarism. 
His defence was perfectly successful, and Suetonius states 2 
that it was called for twice in one day. 

" The Eunuch " is not equal to some of Terence's plays 
in wit and humour ; but the plot is bustling and animated, 
and the dialogue gay and sparkling : it is also unques- 
tionably the best acting play of the whole. There is no 
play in which there is a greater individuality of character, 
or more effect of histrionic contrast. The lovesick and 
somewhat effeminate Phsedria contrasts well with the 
ardent and passionate Chserea, the swaggering, bullying 
Thraso with the pompous, philosophical parasite, who 
proposes to found a Grnathonic School. Parmeno is quite 
as crafty, but far more clever, than Davus, and his de- 
scription of the evils of love is the perfection of shrewd 
wisdom. 

The plot is as follows : — Pamphila, the daughter of an 
Athenian citizen, was kidnapped in her infancy, and sold 
to a Rhodian. He gave her to a courtesan, who educated 
her with her own daughter Thais. Subsequently Thais 



a. u. c. 592 ; b. c. 167. 2 In Vita Ter. 



110 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

removes to Athens j and on the mother's death Pamphila 
is sold to a soldier, named Thraso. The soldier, being 
in love with Thais, resolves to make her a present of his 
purchase ; but Thais has got another lover, Phsedria, and 
Thraso refuses to give Pamphila to Thais unless Phaedria 
is first turned off. She, thinking that she has discovered 
Paniphila's relations, and anxious to restore her to them, 
persuades Phaedria to absent himself for two days, in 
order that Thraso may present her with the maiden. 
Meanwhile Chaerea, Phaedria's younger brother, sees 
Pamphila accidentally, and falls desperately in love with 
her. He, therefore, persuades his brother's slave, Par- 
meno, to introduce him into Thais' house in the disguise 
of a eunuch, whom Phaedria had entrusted him to convey 
to her during his absence. This leads to an eclair cisse- 
ment. Pamphila is discovered to be an Athenian citizen, 
and her brother Chremes gives her in marriage to Chorea. 

The most skilful part of this play is the method by 
which Terence has connected the underplot between 
Parmeno and Pythias the waiting-maid of Thais, with 
the main action, their quarrels being entirely instrumental 
in bringing about the denouement. Of all the comedies 
of Terence, the moral tone of this is the lowest and most 
degrading. The connivance of Laches, the father of 
Chaerea, at his son's illicit amour with Thais, presents a 
sad picture of moral corruption, as the arrangement coolly 
made between Phaedria and Grnatho 1 displays the mean- 
ness, which evidently was not considered inconsistent 
with the habits of Poman society. 

Grievous as are these blemishes, this comedy must 
always be a favourite. There are in it passages of which 
the lapse of ages has not diminished the pungency : 
take, for example, the quiet satire contained in the con- 
trast which Chaerea draws between the healthful and 



Act v. scene ix. 



BEAUTONTIMORUMENOS. Ill 

natural beauty of his mistress and the " every-day forms 
of which his eyes are weary :" — 

Ch. Haud similis virgo 'st virginum nostramm ; quas matres student 
Demissis humeris esse, vincto pectore, ut graciles sient ; 
Si qua est habitior paulo, pugilem esse aiunt ; deducunt cibum, 
Tametsi bona est natura, reddunt curatura junceas : 
Itaque ergo amantur. 

Pa. Quid tua istsec. 

Ch. Nova figura oris. 

Pa. Pa p£ e ! 

Ch. Color verus, corpus solidum et succi plenum. 1 

"The Eunuch" suggested the plot of Sir Charles 
Sedley's " Bellaniira," was translated by La Fontaine, 
and imitated in " Le Muet " of Brueys. 

" Heautontimorumenos." 

" The Self-Punisher is a translation from Menander. 
It was acted the first time with Phrygian music, the 
second time with Lydian, in the consulship of the cele- 
brated Ti. Sempronius Gracchus and M. Juventius 
Thalna. 2 This play may be considered as the masterpiece 
of Terence ; it was a great favourite, notwithstanding its 
seriousness, and the absence of comic drollery throughout. 
Steele 3 remarks with truth, that it is a perfect picture of 
human life ; but there is not in the whole one passage 
which could raise a laugh. It is a good specimen of the 
refined taste of Terence, who, unlike Plautus, abhorred 
vulgarity and ribaldry, and did not often condescend even to 
humour. Its favourable reception, moreover, proves that, 
notwithstanding the preference which the Eoman people 
were inclined to give to gladiatorial shows, and the more 
innocent amusements of buffoons and rope-dancers, and 
the noisy mirth with which theatrical entertainments 
were frequently interrupted, they could appreciate and 
enjoy a skilfully-constructed plot, and that quality which 



Act ii. scene iii. 2 a. u. c. 590 ; b. c. 163. 3 Spect. No. 502. 



112 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Terence especially claims for this comedy, 1 purity of style. 
The noble sentiment, 

Homo sum, nihil humanum a me alienum puto, 

was received by the whole audience with a burst of 
applause. 

Plot. — Clinia, the son of Menedemus, falls in love with 
Antiphila, supposed to be the daughter of a poor Corinthian 
woman, and, to avoid his father's anger, enters the service 
of the king of Persia. Menedemus, repenting of his 
severity, punishes himself by purchasing a farm, and, 
giving up all the luxuries of a town life, works hard from 
morning to night. Like Laertes, in the Odyssey, he 
seeks by occupation to divert his mind from the contem- 
plation of his son's absence : — 

The mournful hour that tore his son away 
Sent the sad sire in solitude to stray ; 
Yet, busied with his slaves, to ease his woe 
He drest the vine, and bade the garden blow. 

Odys. xvi. 145. 

Clinia returns from Asia, and takes up his abode at the 
house of his friend Clitipho, the son of Chremes. This 
Clitipho has fallen in love with Bacchis, an extravagant 
courtesan ; and Syrus, an artful slave, persuades liim to 
pass off Bacchis as the object of China's affection, and 
Antiphila as her waiting-maid. Chremes, next day, to 
whom Menedemus had communicated his grief and re- 
morse, acquaints him with the return of his son, and re- 
commends him to pretend ignorance of his amour. By 
the intrigues and knavery of Syrus, Chremes is induced 
to pay 10 niinse (40Z.) to Clitipho for the support of 
Bacchis. Sostrata, the wife of Chremes, has meanwhile 
discovered, by a ring in her possession, that Antiphila is 
her daughter. She had, according to the cruel Athenian 
practice, given her to the Corinthian in infancy that she 



Prol. 46. 



m 



AMIABLE AND GENEROUS SENTIMENTS. 113 

might not be exposed ; she had given the ring, the means 
of her discovery, at the same time. Clinia, therefore, 
marries Antiphila; and Cliremes, although enraged at 
the imposition of Syrus, forgives him and his son, and 
Clitipho promises that he will give up Bacchis and marry 
a neighbour's daughter. 

This play abounds in amiable and generous sentiments 
and passages of simple and graphic beauty. The whole 
scene, in which the habits of the poor girl whom Clinia 
loves is described, is exquisitely true to nature. Her 
occupation is like that of the chaste Lucretia in the 
legend : — 

Texentem telam studiose ipsam offendimus, 

Mediccriter vestitam veste lugubri, 

Ejus anuis causa, opinor, quse erat mortua ; 

Sine auro, turn ornatam, ita uti quae ornautur sibi ; 

Nulla mala re esse expolitam muliebri ; 

Capillus passus, prolixus, circum caput 

Rejectus negligenter. Heaut. II. iii. 

Busily plying of the web we found her, 

Decently clad in mourning, I suppose, 

For the deceased old woman. She had on 

No gold, or trinkets, but was plain and neat, 

And dressed like those who dress but for themselves. 

No female varnish to set off her beauty ; 

Her hair dishevelled, long, and flowing loose 

About her shoulders. 

The reader cannot but sympathise with the remark 
of Clitipho, when he has heard this description of 
virtuous poverty, — " If all this is true, as I believe it is, 
you are the most fortunate of men." 

The degraded Bacchis also reads a valuable lesson to her 
sex, when she shows the blessings of the path of virtue 
from which she has strayed : — 

Nam expedit bonas esse vobis ; nos, quibuscum est res, non sinunt : 
Quippe forma impulsi nostra, nos amatores colunt : 
Haec ubi immutata est, illi suum animum alio conferunt. 
Nisi si prospectum interea aliquid est, desertoe vivimus. 

I 



114 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Vobis cum uno seniel ubi setatem agere decretura 'st viro, 
Cujus mos maxume 'st consiniiKs vostmm, hi se ad vos applicant. 
Hoc beneficio utrique ab utrisque vero devincimini, 
Ut nunquani ulla ainori vestro incidere possit calamitas. 

Reaut. II. iv. 

Virtue's your interest : those with whom we deal 
Forbid it to be ours ; for our gallants, 
Charmed by our beauty, court us but for that ; 
Which fading, they transfer their love to others. 
If, then, meanwhile we look not to ourselves, 
"We live forlorn, deserted, and distressed. 
You, when you've once agreed to pass your life 
Bound to one man whose temper suits with yours, 
He too attaches his whole heart to you. 
Thus mutual friendship draws you each to each ; 
Nothing can part you, nothing shake your love. 

How beautiful, too, is the unselfish devotion of An- 
tiphila, when she artlessly professes to know nothing of 
other women's feelings, but to know this one thing only, 
that her happiness is wrapped up in that of her lover ! — 

Nescio alias ; me quidem semper scio fecisse sedulo 
Ut ex illius commodo meum compararem commodum. 

II. iv. 16. 

Phormio. 

The Phormio is a translation or adaptation of the 
Epidicazomene (the subject of the lawsuit) of Apollodorus : 
it was entitled Phormio. 

Quia prinias partes qui aget, is erit Phormio 
Parasitus, per quern res geretur maxume. 1 

It was acted four times ; on the last occasion in the 
consulship of C. Fannius Strabo and M. Valerius 
Messala, 2 at the Eoman or Circensian games. 

Plot. — Chremes, an Athenian, although he has a wife at 
Athens (jSTausistrata), marries another at Lemnos under 
the feigned name of Stilpho. By her he has a daughter, 



Prolog. 27. 2 a. u. c. 502 ; b. c. 161. 



THE PHORMIO. 115 

Phanium. When she has attained a marriageable age, 
Chromes arranges with his brother Demipho that she 
shall become the wife of his son Antipho. After this, 
the two old men leave Athens ; and, in their absence, 
Demipho's son, Phaadria, falls in love with a minstrel- 
girl, and the Lemnian wife arrives at Athens, together 
with her daughter Phanium. There she dies ; and 
Antipho, seeing Phanium at the funeral, becomes 
enamoured of her. Not knowing what to do, he takes 
the advice of Phormio. In the case of a destitute 
orphan, the Athenian law compelled the nearest of kin 
to marry her or to give her a portion. Phormio brings 
an action against Antipho ; the case is proved and he 
marries Phanium. The old men return, and Chremes, 
not knowing that Phanium is his own daughter, is 
desperately angry. Meanwhile, Dorio, the owner of 
Pampliila, threatens to sell her to some one else unless 
Phsedria will immediately pay him thirty minse. Greta, 
a knavish servant of Demipho, procures this money by 
telling the old gentleman that Phormio is willing to 
take Antipho 's wife off his hands on condition of receiving 
thirty minee. Phanium is eventually discovered and 
acknowledged, and thus matters are happily concluded. 
Nausistrata is at first very angry, but relents on the sub- 
mission of the repentant Chremes. 

This comedy supplied Moliere with a large portion of 
the materials for " Les Fourberies de Scapin." 

Hecyra. 

This comedy, which, if the inscription may be trusted, 
is a translation or adaptation from one by Menander, 
was the least successful of all the plays of Terence. 
Twice it was rejected; on the first occasion, as the pro- 
logue to its second representation informs us, owing 

i 2 



116 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

to "an unheard-of calamity and impediment." 1 The 
thoughts of the public were so occupied by a rope-dancer, 
that they would not hear a word. Terence feared to risk a 
second representation on the same day ; but such confidence 
had he in the merits of the play, that he offered it a 
second time for sale to the sediles, and it was acted again 
in the consulship of Cn. Octavius and T. Manlius. 2 It 
was acted a third time at the funeral games of L. iEmilius 
Paulus, when it was again rejected. On its next repre- 
sentation, it was successful; and Ambivius Turpio, by 
whose theatrical company it was performed, and whose 
popularity had already caused the revival of some un- 
successful plays, 3 undertook to plead its cause in a new 
prologue. This prologue enters fully into the circum- 
stances which caused its rejection. It states that some 
renowned boxers and expected performances of a rope- 
dancer caused a great tumult and disturbance, especially 
among the female part of the audience ; that, at the next 
representation, the first act went off with applause, but a 
rumour spread of a gladiatorial combat, the people flocked 
to a show which was more congenial to their taste, and 
the theatre was deserted. In conclusion, for the sake of 
the art of poetry, for the encouragement of himself to 
buy new plays, and for the protection of the poet from 
malicious critics, Ambivius entreated the patient atten- 
tion of the audience ; and the appeal of the old favourite 
servant of the public was successful. 

The Hecyra is, without doubt, inferior to the other 
plays of Terence, and probably for that reason has never 
been imitated in modern literature. It is a drama of 
domestic life, and yet the plot is deficient in interest, and 
the scenes want life and variety. 
Plot. — Pamphilus, at the desire of his father, Laches, mar- 



See Prol. i. a B. c. 165 ; a. u. c. 588. 3 See Prol. ii. 



THE HKCYRA. 117 

ries Pliilumena, the daughter of Phidippus and Myrrhina, 
but being involved in an amour with Bacchis, has no 
affection for his wife, and avoids all intercourse with her. 
Meanwhile, Bacchis, offended at his marriage, shows such 
ill-temper, that his affection is weaned from her and 
transferred to Philumena. Pamphilus then goes to 
Imbrus, and on his return is surprised with the news 
that Pliilumena has left his father's house, and subse- 
quently discovers that she has given birth to a son. He 
refuses, consequently, to receive her as his wife ; but as he 
loves her to distraction, he promises her mother that he 
will keep her shame secret. As he will neither live with 
his wife nor assign any reason, Bacchis is suspected of 
being the cause. But she clears herself from the sus- 
picion. Myrrhina, however, recognises upon her finger 
a ring belonging to her daughter. This leads to the 
denouement. Pamphilus had one night when intoxicated 
met Philumena, and offered her violence. He had forced 
a ring from her finger and given it to Bacchis. He, 
therefore, with joy, acknowledges the child as his own, 
and restores his injured wife to his affections. 

The comedy derives its title, Hecyra (the mother-in- 
law), from the part taken by Sostrata, the mother of 
Pamphilus. Laches, unable to account for the conduct 
of Philumena and his son, is firmly persuaded that his 
wife Sostrata had taken a prejudice against her daughter- 
in-law, and Pamphilus, notwithstanding his dutiful affec- 
tion for his mother, cannot avoid being under a similar 
impression. Sostrata, in order to remove this suspicion, 
offers with noble generosity to leave the house in order 
that Philumena may return. 

This amiable rivalry of maternal devotion on the one 
hand, and filial respect on the other, constitutes the most 
interesting portion of the comedy ; and Terence has thus 
endeavoured to rescue the relation of mother-in-law from 
the prejudice which, too often deservedly, attached to it. 



118 roman classical literature. 

Adelphi. 

This comedy was acted at the funeral games of L. 
iEmilius Paulus Macedonius, the conqueror of Perseus, 
in the consulship of L. Anicius Gallus and M. Cornelius 
Oethegus. 1 The music was Sarrane or Tyrian, the grave 
character of which was suitable to the solemnity of the 
occasion. The cost of the representation was borne by 
Q. Fabius Maximus, and P. C. Scipio Africanus, the 
sons of the deceased. 

Plot. — Demea, a country gentleman and a strict disci- 
plinarian, has two sons,iEschinus and Ctesipho. iEschinus, 
the elder, is adopted by his uncle Micio, a bachelor of in- 
dulgent temper and somewhat loose principles, who lives 
a town life at Athens. Whilst Ctesipho is brought up 
strictly in the country, iEschinus is educated with too 
great indulgence, and pursues a course of riot and extra- 
vagance. One night, in a moment of drunken passion, 
he offers violence to Pamphila, a young maiden, well born 
but poor; for which outrage he makes amends by a pro- 
mise of marriage. Ctesipho soon after falls in love with 
a minstrel-girl whom he accidentally meets; and iEschinus, 
to save his brother from his father's anger, conceals his 
amour and takes the discredit of it upon himself. At 
last he assaults the pandar to whom the girl belongs, 
takes her away by force, and gives her to his brother. 
The affair comes to Demea' s ears, who severely reproves 
Micio for ruining his son by injudicious indulgence. 
Matters are at length explained, and the marriage be- 
tween iEschinus and Pamphila takes place, the minstrel- 
girl is assigned to Ctesipho, and the price for her paid. 
The old bachelor, Micio, marries Sostrata, the mother of 
Pamphila, and, according to the usual rule of comedy, all 
the inferior persons of the drama are made happy. 



1 A. u.c. 593; B c, 161. 



MORAL OF THE ADELPHI. 119 

Lax as the morals are which Micio refrains from cor- 
recting, his conduct illustrates a valuable principle in 
education ; that — 

There is a way of winning more by love 

And urging of the modesty than fear. 

Force works on servile humours, not the free. 

Ben Jonson. 

Nor are the evils likely to arise from indifference to 
moral principle left entirely without an antidote. A wise 
and not indiscriminate indulgence is upheld by Demea ; 
and, at the conclusion of the play, he announces his de- 
liberate change of character, but, at the same time, points 
out the pernicious errors of that kindness and indulgence 
which proceeds from impulse and not from principle. 

Dicam tibi : 
Ut id ostenderem, quod te isti facilem et festivum putant, 
Id non fieri ex vera vita, neque adeo ex aequo et bono ; 
Sed assentando atque indulgendo et largiendo, Micio. 
Nunc adeo, si ob earn rem vobis mea vita invisa, iEschine, est, 
Quia non justa, injusta, prorsus omnia omnino obsequor ; 
Missa facio ; effundite, emite, facite, quod vobis lubet. 
Sed si id voltis potius, quae vos propter adulescentiam 
Minus videtis, magis impense cupitis, consulitis parum, 
Haec reprehendere et corrigere quam, obsecundare in loco ; 
Ecce me qui id faciam vobis. 

Now, therefore, if I'm odious to you, son, 

Because I'm not subservient to your humour 

In all things, right or wrong ; away with care ; 

Spend, squander, and do what you will. But if, 

In those affairs where youth has made you blind, 

Eager, and thoughtless, you will suffer me 

To counsel and correct you, and in due season 

Indulge you, I am at your service. Colman. 

This twofold lesson is by no means a useless one to 
parents, not to purchase the affection of their children by 
injudicious indulgence like Micio, nor, on the other hand, 
like Demea, to strain the cord too tight, and thus tempt 
their children to pursue a course of deceit, and to refuse 
then confidence to their natural advisers and guardians 



120 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The most beautiful feature, however, of the play is the 
picture which it gives of fraternal affection. This was 
the last comedy of the author. It furnished Moliere 
with the idea of his "Ecole des Maris," and Baron 
with great part of the plot of "L'Ecole des Peres." 
Shadwell was also indebted to it for his " Squire of 
Alsatia," and Garrick for his comedy of " The Guardian." 

The following comparison of the two great Eoman 
comic poets by a French critic is a just one ■ — 

" Ce poete (Terence) a beaucoup plus d'art, mais il me 
semble que T autre a plus d'esprit. Terence fait beaucoup 
plus parler qu'agir ; l'autre fait plus agir que parler : et 
c'est le veritable caractere de la comedie, qui est beau- 
coup plus dans Taction que dans le discours. Cette 
vivacite me paroit dormer encore un grand avantage a 
Plaute ; c'est que ses intrigues sont bien variees, et ont 
toujours quelque chose qui surprend agreablement ; au lieu 
que le theatre semble languir quelquefois dans Terence, 
a qui la vivacite de Taction et les nceuds des incidens et 
des intrigues manquent manifestement." 

If Terence was inferior to Plautus in life and bustle 
and intrigue, and in the powerful delineation of national 
character, he is superior in elegance of language and re- 
finement of taste : he far more rarely offends against 
decency, and he substitutes delicacy of sentiment for 
vulgarity. The justness of his reflections more than 
compensates for the absence of his predecessor's humour : 
he touches the heart as well as gratifies the intellect. 

If he was deficient in vis comica it is only the defect 
which Csesar attributed to Eoman comedy generally; and 
Cicero, who thought that Eoman wit was even more 
piquant than Attic salt itself, paid him. a merited com- 
pliment in the following line : — 

Quicquid come loquens atque omnia dulcia dicens. 

It has been objected to Terence that he superabounds 



AFRAXIUS — ATILIUS. 121 

in soliloquies; 1 but it is not surprising that he should have 
delighted in them, since no author has ever surpassed 
him in narrative. His natural and unaffected simplicity 
renders him the best possible teller of a story : he never 
indulges in a display of forced wit or in attempts at 
epigrammatic sharpness; there are no superfluous touches, 
although his pictures are enlivened by sufficient minute- 
ness ; his moral lessons are conveyed in familiar proverb- 
like suggestions, not in dull and pedantic dogmatism. 

The remaining comic poets will require but brief 
notice. L. Afranius was a contemporary of Terence, and 
nourished about b. c. 150. His comedies were all of the 
lowest class of fabulce togatce (tabernariae) ; and he was 
generally allowed by the critics to possess great skill in 
accommodating the Greek comedy to the representation 
of Eoman manners : — 

Dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro. 

Hot. Ep. II. i. 57. 

His style was sharp and eloquent (perargutus et dis- 
ertus), 2 but he was a man of low tastes and profligate 
morals ; 3 and, therefore, although from living amidst the 
scenes of vulgar vice which he delighted to paint his 
characters were true to nature, they were revolting and 
disgusting. His immorality, probably, as much as his 
talent, caused him to continue a favourite under the most 
corrupt times of the empire. Fragments and titles of 
many of Ms comedies have been preserved. 

The name of Atilius is made known to us by Cicero, 
who mentions him three times. In a letter to Atticus, 4 
he calls him a most crabbed poet (poeta durissimus), and 
quotes the following line from one of his comedies : — 

Suain cuique sponsam, mihi meam ; suum cuique amorem, mini meum. 



Warton, in the Adventurer. 2 Cic. Brut. 167. 3 Quint, x. i. 100. 
4 Lib. xiv. 20. 



122 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

In the treatise " De Finibus" 1 he speaks of him as 
the author of a bad translation of the Electra of So- 
phocles, and refers to the testimony of Licinius, who 
pronounces him as " hard as iron " — 

Ferreum scriptorem ; verum opinor ; scriptorem tamen 
Ut legendus sit ; 

and, lastly, in the " Tusculan Disputations/' 2 he gives the 
title of one of his plays — Miaoyvvos (the Woman-hater). 
Of his birth and private history nothing has been re- 
corded. 

P. Licinius Tegula is generally supposed to have been 
one of the oldest of the Latin comic writers, having 
flourished as early as the beginning of the second century 
b. c. The few fragments which remain of his works 
afford no opportunity of determining how far he deserved 
the place assigned to him in the epigram of Yolcatius. 

Lavinius Luscius is severely criticised by Terence in 
his prologues to the Eunuchus, Heautontimorumenos, and 
Phormio, although he is not mentioned by name. Te- 
rence, however, defends the severity of his strictures, on 
the ground that Luscius was the first aggressor. In the 
first of the above-mentioned prologues, we are informed 
that he translated well ; but, by unskilful alterations and 
adaptations of the plots, made bad Latin comedies out of 
good Greek ones : — 



bene vertendo et describendo male 



Ex Greecis bonis Latinas fecit non bonas. 

Two plays of Menander are mentioned as having been 
thus ill-treated — the Phasma (Phantom), and the The- 
saurus (Treasure). How he spoilt the plot of the former 
is not stated • but, in the version of the Thesaurus, Te- 
rence convicts Luscius of a legal blunder. A young 
prodigal has sold his inheritance, on which his father's 



Lib. L 2. 2 Lib. iv. ii. 



■**■ 



Q. TRABEA SEXTUS TURPILIUS. 123 

tomb stands, to an old miser. The father, foreseeing 
the consequence of his son's extravagance, had, before 
his death, bid him open the tomb after the expiration of 
ten years. He does so, and finds a treasure. The old 
man claims the treasure as his own, and the young man 
brings an action to recover it. The mistake of which 
Luscius was guilty, was, that in the conduct of the 
cause he made the defendant open the pleadings instead 
of the plaintiff. 

Of the works of Q. Trabea no fragments remain except 
the short passages quoted by Cicero, 1 and the time at 
which he flourished is unknown. There is an anecdote 
which relates that Muretus presented to Jos. Scaliger a 
translation in Latin verse from a poem of Philemon, pre- 
served by Stobseus, which he pretended was by Trabea. 
Scaliger was imposed upon ; and, in his notes on Varro, 
quoted the verses of Muretus as the work of Trabea,. 
When he discovered the trick, he suppressed them in the 
Latin editions of his notes, and revenged himself on 
Muretus by a libellous epigram. 2 

The last of these dramatic writers who remains to be 
mentioned is Sextus Turpilius. A few fragments, as well 
as the titles of some of his plays, are still extant. All 
the titles are Greek, and, therefore, probably his comedies 
were Fabulce Palliatce. He flourished during the second 
century b. c, and died, according to the Eusebian Chro- 
nicle, at the commencement of the first century. 3 



1 De Fin. ii. 4 ; Tusc. Dis. iv. 31. ' 2 Diet. Univ. s. v. 

8 See Smith's Diet of Antiq. s. v. 



124 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTEK VIII. 

WHY TRAGEDY DID NOT FLOURISH AT ROME — NATIONAL LEGENDS 
NOT INFLUENTIAL WITH THE PEOPLE — FABUL^ PR^TEXTAT^E — 
ROMAN RELIGION NOT IDEAL — ROMAN LOVE FOR SCENES OF REAL 
ACTION AND GORGEOUS SPECTACLE — TRAGEDY NOT PATRONISED 
BY THE PEOPLE — PACUVIUS — HIS DULORESTES AND PAULUS. 

From what has been already said, it is sufficiently clear 
that the Italians, like all other Indo-European races, had 
some taste for the drama, but that this taste developed 
itself in a love for scenes of humorous satire. Whilst, 
therefore, Roman comedy originated in Italy, and was 
brought to perfection by the influence of Greek literature, 
Roman tragedy, 1 on the other hand, was transplanted 
from Athens, and, with the exception of a very few cases, 
was never anything more than translation or imitation. 

In the century, during which, together with comedy, 
it flourished and decayed, it boasted of five distinguished 
writers — Livius, Nsevius, Ennius, Pacuvius, and Attius. 
The only claim of Atilius to be considered as a tragic 
poet is his having been the translator of one Greek 
tragedy. But, in after ages, Rome did not produce one 
tragic poet unless Yarius can be considered an exception. 
His tragedy, Thy est es, enjoyed so high a reputation 
amongst the critics of the Augustan age, that Quintilian, 
whose judgment generally agrees with, them, pronounces 



1 See on this subject Lange, Vind. Trag. Rom. Leips. 1823. 



WHY TRAGEDY DTD NOT FLOURISH. 125 

it as able to bear comparison with tlie productions of the 
Greek tragic poets. It was acted on one occasion, 
namely, after the return of Octavius from the battle of 
Actium, and the poet received for it 1,000,000 sesterces 
(about SjOOO/.). 1 The tragedies attributed to Seneca 
were never acted, and were only composed for reading 
and recitation. 

Some account has already been given of Livius, Nsevius, 
and Ennius, because their poetical reputation rests rather on 
other grounds than on their talents for dramatic poetry. 
But, before proceeding with the lives and writings of 
Pacuvius and Attius, it will be necessary to examine the 
causes which prevented tragedy from nourishing at 
Eome. 

In endeavouring to account for this phenomenon, it is 
not sufficient to say, that in the national legends of the 
Hellenic race were embodied subjects essentially of a 
dramatic character, and that epic poetry contained in- 
cidents, characters, sentiments, and even dramatic ma- 
chinery, which only required to be put upon the stage. 
Doubtless, the Greek epics and legends were an inex- 
haustible source of inspiration to the tragic poets. But 
it is also true that the Eomans had national legends 
which formed the groundwork of their history, and were 
interwoven in their early literature. These legends, 
however, were private not public property ; they were 
preserved in the records and pedigrees of private families, 
and ministered to their glory, and were therefore more 
interesting to the members of these houses than to the 
people at large : they were not preserved as a national 
treasure by priestly families, like those of the Attic 
Eumolpidse, nor did they twine themselves around the 
hearts of the Eoman people, as the venerable traditions of 
Greece did around those of that nation. The Eomans 



Hor. Serm. i. 9, 23 ; Ep. Pis. 55 ; Mart. Ep. viii. 18. 



126 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

did not live in them — they were embalmed in their poets 
as curious records of antiquity or acknowledged fictions — 
they did not furnish occasions for awakening national 
enthusiasm. Although, therefore, they existed, they 
were comparatively powerless over the popular mind as 
elements of dramatic effect. 

They were jealously preserved by illustrious houses, 
furnished materials in a dry and unadorned form to the 
Annalists, and were embellished by the graphic power of 
the historian, but it is not probable that they ever con- 
stituted, in the same sense as the Greek legends, the folk- 
lore of the Roman people. In themselves, the lays of 
Horatius and of the lake Eegillus were sufficiently stir- 
ring, and those of Lucretia, Coriolanus, and Yirginia suffi- 
ciently moving, for tragedy, but they were not familiar to 
the masses of the people. 

A period at length arrived in which there was a still 
further reason why Eoman national legends, however 
adapted for tragedy they might be abstractedly, had not 
power to move the affections of the Roman populace. It 
ceased to have a personal interest in them. The masses 
had undergone a complete change. The Eoman people 
of the most flourishing literary eras were not the de- 
scendants of those who maintained the national glory in 
the legendary period. Not only were almost all the 
patrician families then extinct, but war and poverty had 
extinguished the middle classes and miserably thinned the 
lower orders. The old veterans of pure Eoman blood 
who survived were settled at a distance from Eome in 
the different military colonies. Into the vacancy thus 
caused had poured thousands of slaves, captives in the 
bloody wars of Gaul and Spain, and Greece and Africa. 
These and their descendants replaced the ancient people. 
Many of them received liberty and franchise, and some 
by their talents and energy arrived at wealth and station. 
But they could not possibly be Eomans at heart, or con- 



Hfli 



NATIONAL TRADITIONS NOT INFLUENTIAL. 1.^7 

si dor the past glories of their adopted country as their 
own, They were bound by no ties of old associations to 
it. The ancient legends had no especial interest in their 
eyes. It mattered little whether the incidents and cha- 
racters of the tragedy which they witnessed were Greek or 
Roman. It was to the rise of this new element of popu- 
lation, and the displacement or absorption of the old race, 
that the decline of patriotism was owing — the careless 
disregard of everything except daily sustenance and daily 
amusement/ which paved the way for the empire and 
marked the downfall of liberty. From this cause, also, 
resulted in some degree the non-influential position which 
national traditions occupied at Rome ; and tragedy, though 
for a time popular, could not maintain its popularity. 
Thus it entirely disappeared ; and, when it revived, it 
came forth, not as the favourite of the people, but under 
the patronage of select circles, and took its place, not 
like Athenian tragedy as the leading literature of the age, 
but simply as one species of literary composition. 

A people made up of these elements held out no tempt- 
ation to the poet to leave the beaten track of his pre- 
decessors the imitators of Greek tragedy. They were 
stepsons of Rome, as Scipio iEmilianus called the mob, 
who clamoured at his saying that the death of Tiberius 
Gracchus was just: — 

Mercedibus emptse 
Et viles operse quibus est mea Roma noverca. 

Petron. v. 164. 

The poet's real patrons had been educated on Greek 
principles ; and hence, Greek taste was completely tri- 
umphant over national legend, and the heroes of Roman 
tragedy were those who were celebrated in Hellenic story. 
The Roman historical plays (Praetextatse), which ap- 



Juv. Sat. x. 80. 



128 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

proached most nearly towards realizing the idea of a 
national tragedy, were graceful compliments to distin- 
guished individuals. They were usually performed at 
public funerals ; and as, in the procession, masks repre- 
senting the features of the deceased were borne by persons 
of similar stature, so incidents in his life formed the 
subject of the drama which was exhibited on the occasion. 

The list of Fabulaz Prcetextatce, even if it were perfect, 
would occupy but narrow limits : nor had they sufficient 
merits to stand the test of time. They survive but in 
name, and the titles extant are but nine in number : — 

The Paulus of Pacuvius, which represented an incident 
in the life of L. iEmilius Paulus. 1 

The Brutus, iEneadse, and Marcellus of Attius. 2 

Iter ad Lentulum, a passage in the life of Balbus. 3 

Cato. 

Domitius Nero by Maternus, in the time of Yespasian. 

Vescio by the Satirist (?) Persius. 

Octavian by Seneca, in the reign of Trajan. 

Nor must it be forgotten, in comparing the influence 
which tragedy exercised upon the peoples of Athens and 
Eome, that with the former it was a part and parcel of the 
national religion. By it, not only were the people 
taught to sympathise with their heroic ancestors, but 
their sympathies were hallowed. In Greece, the poet 
was held to be inspired — poetry was the voice of deified 
nature — the tongue in which the natural held communion 
with the supernatural, the visible with the invisible. 
With the Eomans, poetry was nothing more than an 
amusement of the fancy ; with the Greeks it was a divinely- 
originating emotion of the soul. 

Hence, in Athens, the drama was, as it were, an act 
of worship, — it formed an integral part of a joyous, yet 
serious religious festival. The theatre was a temple j the 



Liv. xxii. 49. 2 Cic. Att. xvi. 2, 5. 3 Cic. Fam. x. 32. 



mM 



ROMAN RELIGION NOT IDEA!,. 129 

altar of a deity was its central point ; and a band of 
choristers moved in solemn march and song in honour of 
the god, and, in the didactic spirit which sanctified their 
office, taught men lessons of virtue. Not that the audi- 
ence entered the precincts with their hearts imbued with 
holy feelings, or with the thoughts of worshippers ; but 
this is always the case when religious ceremonials 
become sensuous. The real object of the worship is by 
the majority forgotten. But still the Greeks were 
habituated unconsciously to be affected by the drama, as 
by a development of religious sentiments. With the 
Eomans, the theatre was merely a place of secular amuse- 
ment. The thymele existed no longer as a memorial of 
the sacrifice to the god. The orchestra, formerly con- 
secrated to the chorus, was to them nothing more than 
stalls occupied by the dignitaries of the state. Dramas 
were certainly exhibited at the great Megalensian games, 
but they were only accessories to the religious character 
of the festival. A holy season implies rest and relaxa- 
tion — a holiday in the popular sense of the word — and 
theatrical representations were considered a fit and proper 
species of pastime ; but as religion itself did not exercise 
the same influence over the popular mind of the Eomans 
which it did over that of the Greeks, so neither with the 
Romans did the drama stand in the place of the hand- 
maid of religion. 

Again, their religion, though purer and chaster, was not 
ideal like that of the Greeks. Its freedom from human 
passions removed it out of the sphere of poetry, and, there- 
fore, it was neither calculated to move terror nor pity. 
The moral attributes of the Deity were displayed in stern 
severity ; but neither the belief nor the ceremonial sought 
to inflame the heart of the worshipper with enthusiasm. 
Eome had no priestly caste uniting in one and the same 
person the character of the bard and of the minister of 
religion. In after ages, she learned from the Greeks to 

K 



130 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

call the poet sacred, but the holiness which she attributed 
to his character was not the earnest belief of the heart. 
The Roman priests were civil magistrates, religion, there- 
fore, became a part of the civil administration, and a 
political engine. It mattered little what was believed as 
true. The old national faith of Italy, not being firmly 
rooted in the heart, soon became obsolete : it readily 
admitted the engrafting of foreign superstitions. The 
old deities assumed the names of the Greek mythology : 
they exchanged their attributes and histories for those 
of Greek legend, and a host of strange gods filled their 
Pantheon. They had, however, no hold either on the 
belief or the love of the people : they were mythological 
and unreal characters, fit only to furnish subjects and 
embellishments for poetry. 

Nor was the genius of the Eoman people such as to 
sympathise with the legends of the past. The Romans 
lived in the present and the future, rather than in the 
past. The poet might call the age in which he lived 
degenerate, and look forward with mournful anticipations 
to a still lower degradation, whilst he looked back ad- 
miringly to bygone times. Through the vesta of past 
years, Roman virtue and greatness seemed to his ima- 
gination magnified : he could lament, as Horace did, a 
gradual decay which had not as yet reached its worst 
point : — 

./Etas parentum pejor avis tulit 
Nos nequiores mox daturos 

Progeniem vitiosiorem.. Od. III. vi. 46. 

But the people did not sympathise with these feelings : 
they delighted in action, not in contemplation and re- 
flection. They did not look back upon their national 
heroes as demigods, or dream over their glories : they were 
pressing forward and extending the frontiers of their 
empire, bringing under their yoke tribes and nations 
which their forefathers had not known. If they re- 



ELOMAN LOVE VOW REAL SCENES. 131 

garded their ancestors at all, it was not in the light of 
men of heroic stature as compared with themselves, but 
as those whom they would equal or even surpass : they 
lived in hope and not in memory. 

These are not the elements of character which would 
lead a people to realize to themselves the ideal of tragedy. 
The tragic poet at Athens would have been sure that the 
same subject which inspired him would also interest his 
audience — that if his genius rose to the height which 
their critical taste demanded, he could reckon up the 
sympathy of a theatre crowded with ten thousand of his 
countrymen. A Roman tragic poet would have been 
deserted for any spectacle of a more stirring nature — his 
most affecting scenes and noblest sentiments, for scenes of 
real action and real life. The bloody combats of the 
gladiators, the miserable captives and malefactors stretched 
on crosses, expiring in excruciating agonies, or mangled 
by wild beasts, were real tragedies — the sham fights and 
Nauinachia?, though only imitations, were real dramas, 
in which those pursuits which most deeply interested 
the spectators, which constituted their chief duties and 
highest glories, were visibly represented. Even gorgeous 
spectacles fed their personal vanity and pride in their 
national greatness. The spoil of conquered nations, borne 
in procession across the stage, reminded them of their 
triumphs and their victories ; and the magnificent dress of 
the actors — the model of the captured city, preceded and 
followed by its sculptures in marble and ivory — repre- 
sented in mimic grandeur the ovation or the triumph 
of some successful general, whose return from a distant 
expedition, laden with wealth, realized the rumours which 
had already arrived at the gates of Eome; whilst the 
scene, glittering with glass, and gold, and silver, and 
adorned with variegated pillars of foreign marble, told 
ostentatiously of their wealth and splendour. 1 

1 See Cic. de Off. ii. 16 ; Plin. H. N. 30, 3, &c. 

K 2 



132 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Again, the Eomans were a rough, turbulent people, 
full of physical rather than intellectual energy, loving 
antagonism, courting peril, setting no value on human 
life or suffering. Their very virtues were stern and 
severe. The unrelenting justice of a Brutus, repre- 
senting as it did the victory of principle over feeling, 
was to them the height of virtue. They were ready to 
undergo the extreme of physical torture with Eegulus, 
and to devote themselves to death like Curtius and the 
Decii. Hard and pitiless to themselves, they were, as 
might be expected, the same towards others. They 
were, in fact, strangers to both the passions, which it 
was the object of tragedy to excite and to purify, Pity 
and Terror. 1 They were too stern to pity, too unimagi- 
native to be moved by the tales of wonder and deeds 
of horror which affected the tender and marvel-loving 
imagination of the Greeks. Being an active, and not a 
sentimental people, they did not appreciate moral suf- 
fering and the struggles of a sensitive spirit. They were 
moved only by scenes of physical suffering and agony. 

The public games of Greece at Olympia or the Isthmus 
were bloodless and peaceful, and the refinements of poetry 
mingled with those which were calculated to invigorate 
the physical powers and develop manly beauty. Those 
of Eome were exhibitions, not of moral, but of physical 
courage and endurance : they were sanguinary and 
brutalizing, — the amusements of a nation to whom war 
was not a necessary evil or a struggle for national existence, 
for hearths and altars, but a pleasure and a pastime — the 
means of gratifying an aggressive ambition. The tragic 
feeling of Greece is represented by the sculptured grief 
of Niobe, that of Eome by the death-struggles which dis- 
tort the features and muscles of the Laocoon. It was, if 
the expression is allowable, amphitheatrical, not theatrical, 



Arist. Poet. 



TRAGEDY NOT PATRONIZED BY THE PEOPLE. 133 

To such a people the moral woes of tragedy were 
powerless ; and yet it is to the people that the drama, if 
it is to ilourish, must look for patronage. A refined and 
educated society, such as always existed at Eome during 
its literary period, might applaud a happy adaptation 
from the Greek tragedians and encourage a poet in his 
task, for it is only an educated and refined taste which 
can appreciate such talent as skilful imitation displays, 
but a tragic drama under such circumstances could hardly 
hope to be national. Nor must it be forgotten, with 
reference to their taste for spectacle, that the artistic 
accessories of the drama would have a better chance of 
success with a people like the Romans than literary 
merit, because the pleasures of art are of a lower and 
more sensuous kind. Hence, in the popular eye, the 
decoration of the theatre and the costume of the per- 
formers naturally became the principal requisites, whilst 
the poet's office was considered subordinate to the manner 
in which the play was put upon the stage ; and thus the 
degenerate theatrical taste which prevailed in the days 
of Horace called forth the poet's well-known and well- 
deserved criticism. 1 

It cannot, indeed, be asserted that tragedy was never, 
to a certain extent, an acceptable entertainment at Eome, 
but only that it never flourished at Eome as it did at 
Athens — that no Eoman tragedies can, notwithstanding 
all that has been said in their praise and their defence, 
be compared with those of Greece, and that the tragic 
drama never maintained such a hold on the popular 
mind as not to be liable to be displaced by amusements 
of a more material and less intellectual kind. It was 
imitative and destitute of originality. It was introduced 
from without as one portion of the new literature ; it did 
not grow spontaneously by a process of natural develop- 



1 Epist. II. i. 182. 



134 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ment out of preceding eras of epic and lyric poetry, and 
start into being, as it did at Athens, at the very moment 
when the public mind and taste was ready to receive and 
appreciate it. 

Three eras, separated from one another by chasms, 
the second wider than the first, produced tragic poets. 
In the first of these flourished Livius Andronicus, Nse- 
vius, and Ennius ; in the second Pacuvius and Attius ; 
in the third Asinius Pollio 1 wrote tragedies, the plots of 
which, as the words of Virgil seem to imply, were taken 
from Eoman history. 2 Varius either wrote, or, as some 
of the Scholiasts assert, stole, the " Thyestes" from 
Cassius or Yirgil. Ovid attempted a " Medea," of 
which Quintilian speaks, as being, to say the least, a 
promising performance j and even the Emperor Augustus 
himself, together with other men of genius, tried their 
hands, though unsuccessfully, at tragedy. The epistle of 
Horace to the Pisos shows at once the prevalence of this 
taste, and that general ignorance of the rules and prin- 
ciples of art required instruction. Ten rhetorical dramas, 
attributed with good reason to the philosopher Seneca, 
complete the catalogue of tragedies belonging to this era, 
but with the exception of these, no specimens remain ; 
most probably they did not merit preservation. The trage- 
dies of the older school were of a higher stamp, and they 
kept their place in the public estimation long enough to 
give birth to the newer and inferior school. Passages 
from the old Latin tragedies quoted by Cicero w^ell 
deserves the admiration with which he regarded them ; 
and a fragment of the " Prometheus" of Attius is marked 
by a grandeur and sublimity which makes us regret the 
almost total loss of this branch of Roman literature. 



1 Asinius Pollio is said by Seneca (Controv. iv. Prsef.) to have introduced 
the practice of poets reading their works to a circle of friends. 

2 Eel. iii. 86. 






LIFE OF PACUVIUS. 135 



PACUVIUS : BORN B. C. 220. 



The era at which Eoman tragedy reached its highest 
degree of perfection was the second of those mentioned, 
and was simultaneous with that of comedy. Both 
flourished together ; for, whilst Terence was so success- 
fully reproducing the wit and manners of the new Attic 
comedy, M. Pacuvius was enriching the Eoman drama 
with free imitations of the Greek tragedians. He was a 
native of Brundisium, and nephew, 1 or, according to St. 
Jerome, grandson of the poet Ennius. Although born 
as early as b.c. 220, he does not appear to have attained 
the height of his popularity until b.c. 154. 2 During his 
residence at Borne, where he remained until after his 
SOth year, 3 he distinguished himself as a painter as well 
as a dramatic poet, and one of his pictures in the temple 
of Hercules was thought only to be surpassed by the 
work of Fabius Pictor. 4 He formed one of that literary 
circle of which Lselius was so great an ornament. The 
close of his long life was passed in the retirement of 
Tarentum, where he died in the ninetieth year of his age. 
A simple and unpretending epigram is preserved by 
Aulus Grellius, 5 which may probably have been written 
by himself : — 

Adulescens, etsi properas, te hoc saxum rogat 
TJti ad se aspicias, deinde quod scriptum est, legas. 
Hie sunt poetse Pacuvi Marci sita 
Ossa. Hoc volebam, nescius ne esses. Vale. 

Pacuvius was a great favourite with those who could 
make allowances for the faults, and appreciate the merits, 
of the great writers of antiquity, and his verses were 



1 Math. Hist, of Class. Lit. ; Bernhardy, Grand. 366. 

' Hier. in Eus. Chron. 01. 156, 3. 3 Cic. Brat. 64. 

4 Plin. N. H. xxxv. 1, 4. 5 N. A. i. 24 ; Meyer, Anth, xxiv. 



136 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

popular in the time of J. Caesar, 1 and that lover of the 
old Eoman literature, Cicero, though not blind to his 
faults, is warm in his commendations. He was not 
without admirers in the Augustan age, and even his 
defects had zealous defenders in the time of Persius 
amongst those who could scarcely discover a fault in any 
work which savoured of antiquity. 2 The archaic rug- 
gedness of his language, his uncouth forms, such as 
axim, tetinerim, egregiissimus, and his unauthorized con- 
structions like mi hi piget, were due to the unsettled state 
of the Latin language in his days. His strange combi- 
nations, such as repandirostrum and incurvicervicum, may 
possibly have been suggested by the study of Greek, and 
by his overweening admiration for its facility of com- 
position. But his polish, pathos, and learning, 3 the 
harmony of his periods, 4 his eloquence, 5 his fluency, his 
word-painting, 6 are peculiarly his own. 

The tragedies of Pacuvius were not mere translations, 
but adaptations of Greek tragedies to the Eoman stage. 
The fragments which are extant are full of new and 
original thoughts. His plots were borrowed from the 
Greek, but the plan and treatment were his own. The 
lyric portion appears to have occupied an important place 
in his tragedies, and displays considerable imaginative 
power. It is evident that his mind only required 
suggestions, and was sufficiently original to form new 
combinations. The titles of thirteen of his tragedies are 
preserved, 7 of which the most celebrated were the " An- 
tiopa" and " Dulorestes " (Orestes in Slavery). Of the 
former, the only fragment extant is one severely criticised 
by Persius. The latter was principally founded on the 



1 Cic. de Am. 7. ' 2 Pers. Sat. i. 77. 3 Hor. Ep. II. i. 55. 

4 Ad Heren. iv. 4 and 11, 23. 5 Varro ap. Gel vii. 14. 

6 Cic. de Div. i. 14 ; Orat. iii. 39. 7 See Smith's Diet. 



SUBJECT OF THE DULORESTES. 137 

" Iphigenia in Tauris " of Euripides, 1 although the author 
was evidently inspired with the poetical conceptions of 
iEschylus. In fact, Pacuvius is less Euripidean than the 
other Roman tragic poets. The very roughness of his 
style and audacity of his expressions have somewhat of the 
solemn grandeur and picturesque boldness which distin- 
guish the father of Attic tragedy. 

The subject of the " Dulorestes " was the adventures of 
the son of Agamemnon, when driven from the palace 
of his ancestors, he was in exile and in slavery. 2 On the 
first representation of this play, the generous friendship 
of Orestes and Pylades called forth the most enthusiastic 
applause from the audience, who then probably heard the 
legend for the first time. "What acclamations," says 
Lcelius, 3 "resounded through the theatre at the repre- 
sentation of the new play of my guest and friend M. 
Pacuvius, when the long, being ignorant which of the 
two was Orestes, Pylades affirmed that he was Orestes, 
that he might be put to death in his place, whilst Orestes 
persevered in asserting that he was the man I" 

One of his plays, " Paulus," was a Fabula prcetextata ; 
its subject was taken entirely from Eoman history, the 
hero being L. iEin. Paulus, the conqueror of Perseus. 
Besides tragedies, the grammarians have attributed to 
him one Satura. 4 He is said also to have written 
comedies ; but there is no evidence in favour of any, with 
the exception of one, entitled " Mercator." 



1 De Pac. Did. A. Steigl. Leips. 1S26. 2 Pierron p. 162. 

3 Cic. de Am. vii. 4 Diom. iii. 



138 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE, 



CHAPTER IX. 

L. ATTIUS — HIS TRAGEDIES AND FRAGMENTS— OTHER WORKS — 
TRAGEDY DISAPPEARED WITH HIM — ROMAN THEATRES — TRACES 
OF THE SATIRIC SPIRIT IN GREECE — ROMAN SATIRE — LUCILIUS 
— CRITICISMS OF HORACE, CICERO, AND QUINTILDAN — PASSAGE 
QUOTED BY L ACTANTIUS — LM VIUS A LYRIC POET. 

L. ATTIUS: BORN ABOUT B.C. 170. 

Although born about fifty years later than Pacuvius, 1 
Attius was almost his contemporary, and a competitor for 
popular applause. The amiable old poet lived on the 
most friendly terms with his young rival; and A. Grellius 
tells us, that after he withdrew from the literary society 
of Eome to retirement at Tarentum, he on one occasion 
invited the rising poet to be his guest for some days, 
and made him read his tragedy of " Atreus." Pacuvius 
criticised it kindly, fairly praised the grandeur of the 
poetry; but said that it was somewhat harsh and hard. 
" You are right," replied Attius, " but I hope to improve. 
Fruits which are at first hard and sour, become soft and 
mellow, but those which begin by being soft, end in 
being rotten." Valerius Maximus 2 relates that in the 
assemblies of the poets he refused to rise at the entrance 
of J. Csesar, because he felt that in the republic of letters 
he was the superior, If this anecdote is genuine, it does 
not prove that the aged poet was guilty of unwarrant- 
able self-esteem, for Caesar must then have been quite a 



Cic. Brut. 64. 2 Lib. iii. 7, 11. 



M 



TRAGEDIES OF A.TTITJS. 130 

youth, and if he had any claim to reputation as a poet, 
he was, at any rate, not yet distinguished as a warrior 
or a statesman. Amongst the great men whose friend- 
ship the poet enjoyed was Dec. Brutus, who was consul 
a.u.c. GIG. 1 Nothing more is known respecting his 
private liistory, except that his parents were freedmen, 
and that he was one of the colonists settled at Pisaurum, 
where, in after times, a farm or estate (fundus Attianus) 
continued to bear his name. His tragedies were very 
numerous. He is said to have written more than fifty. 
Three at least wevePrcetextatce, their titles being "Brutus," 
" The TEneadse," or " Decius," 2 and " Marcellus." His 
" Trachinise " and " Phcenissse " were almost translations, 
the one from Sophocles, the other from Euripides ; the 
rest were free imitations of Greek tragedies. They were 
distinguished both for sublimity and pathos; and although 
he was warmed by the fiery spirit and tragic grandeur of 
iEschylus, he evidently evinced a predilection for So- 
phocles. 3 His taste is chastened, his sentiments noble, 
his versification elegant. His language is almost clas- 
sical, and was deservedly admired by the ancients for its 
polish as w^ell as its vigour. The " Brutus " was written 
at the suggestion of his friend Decimus. The plot was 
the expulsion of the Tarquins, the hero Brutus, the heroine 
Lucretia. He had chosen one of the noblest romances in 
Eoman history. Two passages, 4 quoted by Cicero, are all 
that remain of this national tragedy. In them the tyrant 
relates to the augurs a dream which had haunted him, 
and they, at his request, give their interpretation of it. 
Varro has also preserved the soliloquy of Hercules in the 
agonies of death, from the Trachinise, 5 a noble para- 



1 Cic. Brut. 64 ; Gell. xiii. 2 ; Brut. 28. 

2 Cic. de Leg. ii. 21 ; Pro Arch. ii. 

3 Bernhardy, 367 ; Hor. Ep. II. i. 56 ; Quint, x. i. 

4 De Divin. i. 22 ; Bothe, Poet. Seen. ft\ p. 191, 

5 Bothe, p. 246. 



L40 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

phrase of Sophocles. This fine specimen of his genius 
extends to the length of forty-five lines. In another 
passage, Philoctetes pours forth his sufferings in lan- 
guage as touching as the original Greek ; and in a third, 
Prometheus, now delivered from the tyranny of Jupiter, 
addresses to his assembled Titans a strain of indignant 
eloquence not unworthy of iEschylus. 1 The following 
lines from the " Phcenissse " and the " Complaint of 
Philoctetes," are, though brief, fair examples of his lan- 
guage and versification : — 

Sol, qui micantem candido curru atque equis 
Flammam citatis fervido ardore explicas, 
Quianam tarn adverso augurio et inimico omine 
Thebis radiatum lumen ostendis tuum ! 2 

Heu ! quis salsis fluctibus mandet 
Me ex sublinii vertice saxi, 
Jamjam absumor ; conficit animani 
Vis volneris, ulceris sestus. 3 

These are the most important of the numerous frag- 
ments which are extant of the various tragedies of the 
lofty Attius. 4 He has been considered by some as the 
founder of the Tragoedia Prcetextata. This, however, is 
not true, for there is no doubt that such dramas were 
written by his predecessors. Nevertheless, he brought 
the national tragedy to its highest state of perfection. 

The time was now evidently approaching when the 
Eomans were beginning to show, that although they did 
not possess the inventive genius of the Greeks, they were 
capable of stripping their native language of its rudeness, 
and of transferring into it the beauties of Greek thought ; 
that they were no longer mere servile copyists, but could 
use Greek poetry as furnishing suggestions for original 



1 Tusc. Disp. ii. 10 ; Bothe, p. 239. 2 Ibid. p. 238. 

3 Ibid, p. 231. 4 Hor. Ep. II. i. 55. 



an 



OTHER WORKS OF ATTIUS. 141 

efforts. They could not quarry for themselves, but they 
could now build up Greek materials into a glowing 
and polished edifice, of which the details were new and 
the effect original. 

The metres which Attius used were chiefly the iambic 
trimeter and the anapaestic dimeter, but his prcetextatce 
were written in trochaic and iambic tetrameters, the 
rhythm of which proves that his ear was more refined 
than that of Ins predecessors. 1 

It is not known whether he was the author of any 
comedies, but he was a historian, an antiquarian, and a 
critic, as well as a poet. He left behind him a review 
of dramatic poetry, entitled " Libri Didascalion" " Eo- 
man Annals" in verse, and two other works — " Libri 
Pragmaticon" and " Parerga" The former of these is 
quoted by Nonius and A. Grellius. He died at an 
advanced age, probably about A.u.c. 670, and is thus a 
link, as it were, which connects the first literary period 
with the age of Cicero; for the great orator was personally 
acquainted with him, and at his death must have been 
about twenty-two years of age. 

With Attius Latin tragedy disappeared. The trage- 
dies of the third period were written expressly for reading 
and recitation, and not for the stage. They may have 
deserved the commendations which they obtained, but 
the merit and talent which they displayed were simply 
rhetorical, and not dramatic : they were dramatic poems, 
not dramas. 

The state of political affairs, which synchronized with 
the death of Attius, was less congenial than ever to the 
tragic muse. Eeal and bloody tragedies were being 
enacted, and there was no room in the heart of the 
Eoman people for fictitious woes. If it was improbable 
that a people who delighted in the sanguinary scenes of 



See Nieb. Lect. 88. 



142 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the amphitheatre should sympathise with the sorrows of 
a hero in tragedy, it was almost impossible that tragedy 
should flourish when Eome itself was a theatre in which 
scenes of horror were daily enacted. 

Either then, or not long before, the terrible domination 
of Cinna and Marius had begun. Massacre and violence 
raged through the streets of Eome. The best and 
noblest fell victims to the raging thirst for blood. The 
aged Marius, distracted by unscrupulous ambition and 
savage passions, died amidst the delirious ravings of 
remorse, and thus made way for the tyranny of his 
perjured accomplice Cinna, Still there was no respite 
or interruption. The cruel Sulla sent his orders from 
Antemnae to slaughter 8,000 prisoners in cold blood. 
The. massacre had hardly begun when he himself arrived, 
had taken his place in the senate, and the shrieks of 
his murdered victims were audible in the house whilst he 
was coolly speaking. This was the beginning of horrors : 
the notorious proscription followed. Besides other vic- 
tims, 2,600 Eoman knights perished. 

Amidst such scenes as these the voice of the tragic 
muse was hushed. Depending for her very existence on 
the breath of popular favour, she necessarily could not 
find supporters, and so languished and was silenced. It 
might appear surprising that literature of any kind 
should have lived through such times of savage bar- 
barism. But other literature is not dependent upon 
public patronage : it finds a refuge beneath the shelter of 
the private dwelling. The literary man finds friends and 
patrons amongst those who, devoted to the humanities 
of intellectual pursuits, shuns the scenes of revolutionary 
strife and the struggles of selfish ambition. Even Sulla 
himself had a polished and refined taste ; and, when he 
resigned the Dictatorship, passed those hours of retire- 
ment in literary studies which were not devoted to 
depravity and licentiousness. 



mm 



ROMAN THEATRES. 143 

The style in which the Roman theatres were built, 
indicates that whatever taste for tragedy the Roman 
people possessed had now decayed. The huge edifice 
erected by Pompey was too vast for the exhibition of 
tragedy. The forty thousand spectators, which it con- 
tained, could scarcely hear the actor, still less could they 
see the expression of human passions and emotions. The 
two theatres, placed on pivots back to back, so that they 
could be wheeled round and form one vast amphitheatre, 
show how an interest in the drama was shared with the 
passion for spectacle, and provision was thus publicly 
made for gratifying that corrupt taste which had arrived 
at its zenith in the time of Horace, and, as we have seen, 
interrupted even comedy so early as the times of Terence. 

Satire. 

The invention of satire is universally attributed to 
the Romans, and this assertion is true as far as the 
external form is concerned ; but the spirit of satire is 
found in many parts of the literature of Grreece. It 
animated the Homeric Margites, the poem on woman 
by Simonides, the bitter lyrical iambics of Archilochus, 
Stesichorus' attack on Helen, and especially, as Horace 
says, the old comedy of Eupolis, Cratinus, and Aristo- 
phanes. Some resemblance may also be discerned between 
Roman satire and the Greek Silli, poems belonging to 
the declining period of Greek literature, 1 the design of 
which was to attack vice and folly with severe ridicule. 2 



1 b. c. 279. 

2 The etymology of o-tXXoi is unknown. Casaubon derived the word from 
aiWaivetv, to scoff. The probability, however, is that the substantive is 
the root of the verb. The invention of the Silli has been ascribed by some 
to Xenophanes, the philosopher of Colophon. He was the author of a 
didactic poem, and his invectives were directed against the absurd and 
erroneous doctrines of his predecessors. Timon, a sceptical philosopher, 
who lived in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, was undoubtedly the 
author of Silli. Some of these are dialogues, in which one of the persons 



144 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Satire is, in fact, if Horace may be believed, the form 
which comedy took amongst a people with whom the 
drama did not nourish. Ennius was the inventor of the 
name, but Lucilius 1 was the father of satire, in the proper 
sense, and was at Eome what the writers of the old 
comedy were at Athens. It subsequently occupied a 
wider field : Persius and Juvenal confined themselves to 
its didactic purpose, but Horace made it a vehicle for the 
narration of amusing adventure, and picturesque descrip- 
tions of human life. 

The Satires of Lucilius mark an era in Roman litera- 
ture, and prove that a love for this species of poetry had 
already made great progress. Hitherto, science, litera- 
ture, and art, had been considered the province of slaves 
and freedmen. The stern old Roman virtue despised 
such sedentary and inactive employment as intellectual 
cultivation, and thought it unworthy of the warrior and 
the statesman. Some of the higher classes loved litera- 
ture and patronised it, but did not make it their pursuit. 
Cato blamed M. Fulvius Nobilior for being accompanied 
by poets when he proceeded to his provincial govern- 
ment, 2 and did not until advanced in years undertake to 
study Greek. 3 C. Lucilius was by birth of equestrian 
rank, the first Roman knight who was himself a poet. 4 
He was born at Suessa Aurunca B.C. 148, 5 and lived to 
the age of forty-six years. 6 At fourteen, he served under 



is Xenophanes, whence perhaps he was erroneously considered the inventor 
of this kind of poetry. All the Silli of Timon are epic parodies, and their 
subject a ludicrous and sceptical attack on philosophy of every kind. 
Fragments of Silli are preserved by Diogenes, Lucilius, and Chrysostom. — 
Ad. Alex. Orat. See also Brunck's Analecta, and Suidas s. vv. o-ikXaivtiv, 
Tificov. 

1 Hor. Sat. i. 4, 10. 2 Cic. Tusc. i. 2. 

3 Aurelius Victor states (De Vit. Illust. xlvii.) that Cato took lessons in 
Greek from Ennius. 

4 Juv. Sat. i. 20. 5 Hieron. Chron. Euseb. 

6 In defence of the chronology of Lucilius' life, see Smith's Dictionary of 
Biography, s. v. Lucilius. 



_ 



CRITICISM OF HORACE. 145 

Scipio, at the siege of Numantia. 1 He was the maternal 
great-uncle of Pompey, and numbered amongst his friends 
and patrons Afrieanus and Laelius. His Satires were 
comprised in thirty books, of which the first twenty and 
the thirtieth were written in hexameters, the rest in 
iambics or trochaics. Numerous fragments are still 
extant, some of considerable length. The Satires were 
probably arranged according to their subject-matter ; for 
those in the first book are on topics connected with 
religion, whilst those in the ninth, treat of literary and 
grammatical criticism. His versification is careless and 
unrefined ; very inferior in this respect to that of his pre- 
decessors. He sets at defiance the laws of prosody, and 
almost returns to the usage of that period in which the 
ear was the only judge. 

The prejudices of Horace 2 against the ancient Roman 
literature render him an unsafe guide in criticism. Even 
in his own time his attacks were considered by some 
indefensible ; but his strictures on the style of Lucilius 
are not undeserved; it was unmusical, affected, and 
incorrect. His sentences are frequently ill-arranged, and 
therefore deficient in perspicuity. His mixture of Greek 
and Latin expressions, without that skill and art with 
which Horace considered it allowable to enrich the 
vernacular language, is itself offensive to good taste, and 
is rendered still more disagreeable by unnecessary di- 
minutives and forced alliteration. On these grounds, 
and on these alone, he merits the contemptuous criticism 
of Horace. 

His real defect was want of facility ; and it is not im- 
probable that, if prose had been considered a legitimate 
vehicle, he would have preferred pouring forth in that 
unrestricted form his indignant eloquence, rather than 
that, as Horace says, every verse should have cost him 



Veil. Paterc. ii. 9. a See Sat. I. iv. ; I. x. : I. i. 29, &c. 

L 



146 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

many scratchings of the head, and biting his nails to the 
quick. Whilst the criticism of Horace errs on the side 
of severity, that of Cicero 1 is somewhat too partial : 
firstly, because he himself was deficient in poetical 
facility ; secondly, because in his time there were no 
models of perfection wherewith to compare the works of 
Lucilius. The judgment of Quintilian 2 is moderate ; and 
although the taste for poetry was then corrupted by a 
love of quaintness and rhetorical affectation, the praise 
is well-merited which he bestows on the frank honesty 
and biting wit of the Satires of Lucilius. As he took 
the writers of old Attic comedy for his models, it cannot 
be a matter of surprise that he occasionally added force 
to his attacks on vice by coarseness and personality. 
Like them, if Lucilius found any one who deserved 
rebuke for his crimes, he did not trouble himself to 
make general remarks and to attack vice in the abstract, 
but to illustrate his principles by living examples. 

The education of Lucilius had probably been desultory, 
and his course of study not sufficiently strict to give the 
rich young Roman knight the accurate training, the 
critical knowledge, necessary to make him a poet as well 
as a satirist. It had given him learning and erudition — 
it had furnished him with the wealth of two languages, 
both of which he used whenever he thought they supplied 
him with a two-edged weapon — but it had not sufficiently 
cultivated his ear and refined his taste. On the other 
hand, his Satires must have possessed nobler qualities 
than those of style. He was evidently a man of high 
moral principle, though stern and stoical, devotedly 
attached to the cause of virtue, a relentless enemy of 
vice and profligacy, a gallant and fearless defender of 
truth -and honesty. He must have felt with Juvenal 
" difficile est satiram non scribere." He was under an 



De Orat. ii. 6 ; De Fin. i. 3. 2 Inst. Or. x. i. 



PASSAGE QUOTED BY LACTANTIUS. 147 

obligation which he could not avoid. What cared he 
for correct tetrameters or heroics or senarii, so that he 
could crush effeminacy and gluttony and self-indulgence, 
and restore the standard of ancient morals, to which he 
looked back with admiration ! 

This chivalrous devotion inspired him with eloquence, 
and gave a dignity to his rude verses, although it did 
not invest them with the graces and charms of poetry. 
"Nor is it only when he declares open war against cor- 
ruption that he must have made his adversaries tremble, 
or his victims, conscience-stricken, writhe beneath his 
knife. His encomiums upon virtue form as striking 
pictures ; but in both it is the masterly outline of the 
drawing which amazes and instructs, not the mere ac- 
cessory of the colouring. See, for example, the following 
noble passage with its unselfish conclusion, preserved by 
Lactantius : 1 — 

Virtus, Albine, est pretium persolvere verum 

Queis in versanmr, queis vivimu' rebu' potesse. 

Virtus est homini scire id quod quseque habeat res. 

Virtus, scire homini rectum, utile, quid sit honestum, 

Quce bona, quae mala item quid inutile turpe inhonestum. 

Virtus, qusorendoe finem rei scire modumque ; 

Virtus, divitiis pretium persolvere posse. 

Virtus, id dare quod reipsa debetur honori, 

Hostem esse atque inimicum hominum morumque malorum ; 

Contra, defensorem hominum morumque bonorum ; 

Magnificare hos, his bene velle, his vivere amicum ; 

Commoda prseterea patriai prima putare, 

Deinde parentum, tertia jam postremaque nostra. 

Had they been extant, we should have found useful 
information and instruction in his faithful pictures of 
Eoman life and manners in their state of moral transition 
— amusement in such pieces as his journal of a progress 
from Borne to Capua, from which Horace borrowed the 
idea of his journey to Brundisium, whilst in his love- 
poems, addressed to his mistress, Collyra, we should have 



Inst. Div. vi. 5. 

L 2 



148 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

traced the tender sympathies of human nature, which the 
sternness of stoicism was unable to overcome. 

Besides satire, Lucilius is said to have attempted lyric 
poetry : if this be the case, it is by no means surprising 
that no specimens have stood the test of time, for he 
possessed none of the qualifications of a lyric poet. 

After the death of Lucilius, satire languished. Yarro 
Atacinus attempted it and failed. 1 Half a century subse- 
quently it assumed a new garb in the descriptive scenes 
of Horace, and put forth its original vigour in the burn- 
ing thoughts of Persius and Juvenal. 

Livius. 

This literary period was entirely destitute of lyric 
poetry, unless Mebuhr is correct in supposing that 
Laivius nourished contemporaneously with Lucilius. 2 
Nothing is known of his history ; and such uncertainty 
prevails respecting him that his name is constantly con- 
founded with those of Livius and Nsevius. It is not im- 
probable, that some passages attributed to them, which 
appear to belong to a later literary age, are, in reality, 
the work of Lsevius — for example, the hexameters which 
are found in the Latin Odyssey of Livius. He translated 
the Cyprian poems, and wrote some fugitive amatory 
pieces entitled Eroto-psegnia. They seem to have pos- 
sessed neither the graceful simplicity nor the tender 
warmth which are essential to lyric poetry, although 
they perhaps attained as great elegance of expression as 
the state of the language then admitted. Short frag- 
ments are preserved by Apuleius and in the Nodes 
Atticoe of A. Gellius. 3 



Hor. Sat. I. x. 46. 2 Nieb. Lect. lxxxviii. 3 Lib. ii. 24, xix. 9. 



( 149 ) 



CHAPTER X. 

PROSE LITERATURE— PROSE SUITABLE TO ROMAN GENIUS — HISTORY, 
JURISPRUDENCE, AND ORATORY — PREVALENCE OF GREEK — 
Q. FABIUS PICTOR — L. CINCIUS ALIMENTUS — C. ACILIUS GLABRIO — 
VALUE OF THE ANNALISTS — IMPORTANT LITERARY PERIOD DURING 
WHICH CATO CENSORIUS FLOURISHED — SKETCH OF HIS LIFE— HIS 
CHARACTER, GENIUS, AND STYLE. 

Prose was far more in accordance with trie genius of the 
Romans than poetry. As a nation they had little or 
no ideality or imaginative power, no enthusiastic love 
of natural beauty, no acute perception of the sympathy 
and relation existing between man and the external 
world. In the Greek mind a love of country and a love 
of nature held a divided empire — they were poets as well 
as patriots. Roman patriotism had indeed its dark side 
— an unbounded lust of dominion, an unscrupulous am- 
bition to extend the power and glory of the republic; 
but, nevertheless, it prompted a zealous devotion to 
whatever would promote national independence and 
social advancement. Statesmanship, therefore, and the 
subjects akin to it, constituted the favourite civil 
pursuit of an enlightened Roman, who sought a dis- 
tinguished career of public usefulness ; and, therefore, 
that literature which tended to advance the science of 
social life had a charm for him which no other litera- 
ture possessed. 

The branches of knowledge which would engage his at- 
tention, were History, Jurisprudence, and Oratory. They 
would be studied with a view to utility, and in a practical 



150 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

spirit : they would require a scientific and not an artistic 
treatment, and, therefore, their natural language would 
be prose and not poetry. As matter was more valued 
than manner by this utilitarian people, it was long before 
it was thought necessary to embellish prose literature 
with the graces of composition. The earliest orators 
spoke with a rude and vigorous eloquence which is always 
captivating : they wrote but little ; their style was stiff 
and dry, and very inferior to their speaking. Cato's 
prose was less rugged than that of his contemporaries or 
even his immediate successors. Sisenna was the first 
historian to whom gracefulness and polish have been at- 
tributed; and C. Gracchus is spoken of as a single ex- 
ception to the orators of his age, on account of the 
rhythmical modulation of his prose sentences — a quality 
which he probably owed not more to a delicate ear than 
to the softening influence of a mother's education. Even 
the prose of that celebrated model of refinement and good 
taste, C. Lselius, was harsh and unmusical. 1 

Besides the influence which the practical character of the 
Eoman mind exercised upon prose writing, it must not be 
forgotten that Eoman literature was imitative : its end 
and object, therefore, were not invention but erudition; 
it depended for its existence on learning, and was almost 
synonymous with it. This principle gave a decidedly 
historical bias to the Eoman intellect : an historical taste 
pervades a great portion of the national literature. There 
is a manifest tendency to study subjects in an historical 
point of view. It will be seen hereafter that it is not 
like the Greek, original and inventive, but erudite and 
eclectic. The historic principle is the great characteristic 
feature of the Eoman mind ; consequently, in this branch 
of literature, the Eomans attained the highest reputation, 
and may fairly stand forth as competitors with their 



1 See Nieb. Lect. lxxix. and Schol. in Cic. Orell. ii. p. 283. 



BISTORT AM) JURISPRUDENCE 151 

Greek instructors. Not that they ever entirely equalled 
them; for, though they were practical, vigorous, and just 
tli inkers, they never attained that comprehensive and 
philosophical spirit which distinguished the Greek his- 
torians. 

The work of an historian was, in the earliest times, 
recognized as not unworthy of a Boman. It was not 
like the other branches of literature, in which the example 
was first set by slaves and freedmen. Those who first 
devoted themselves to the pursuit were also eminent in 
the public service of their country. Fabius Pictor was 
of an illustrious patrician family. Cincius Alimentus, 
Fulvius Nobilior, and others, were of free and honourable 
birth. Such were Eoman historians until the time of 
Sulla; for L. Otacilius Pilitus, who flourished at that 
period, was the first freedman who began to write 
history. 1 2 

Again, the science of jurisprudence formed an indis- 
pensable part of statesmanship. It was a study which 
recommended itself by its practical nature : it could not 
be stigmatised even by the busiest as an idle and fri- 
volous pursuit, whilst the constitutional relation which 
subsisted between patron and client, rendered the know- 
ledge of its principles, to a certain extent, absolutely 
necessary. Protection from wrong was the greatest 
boon which the strong could confer upon the weak, the 
learned on the unlearned. It was, therefore, the most 
efficacious method of gaining grateful and attached friends; 
and, by their support, the direct path was opened to the 
highest political positions. It is not, therefore, to be 
wondered at that, even when elegant literature was in 
its infancy, so many names are found of men illustrious 
as jurists and lawyers. 



1 Suet, de Clar. Rhet. iii. 

2 The fragments of the ancient Roman historians have been collected by 
Augustus Krause, and published at Berlin in 1833. 



152 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Practical statesmanship, in like manner, gave an early 
encouragement to oratory. It is peculiarly the literature 
of active life. The possession of eloquence rendered a 
man more efficient as a soldier and as a citizen. Great 
as is the force of native unadorned eloquence, vigorous 
common-sense, honest truthfulness, and indignant passion, 
nature would give way to art as taste became more cul- 
tivated. Nor could the Eomans long have the finished 
models of Greek eloquence before their eyes, without 
transferring to the forum or the senate-house somewhat 
of their simple grandeur and majestic beauty. 

The first efforts of the Eoman historians were devoted 
to the transfer of the records of poetry into prose as their 
more appropriate and popular vehicle. The national lays 
which tradition had handed down were the storehouses 
which they ransacked to furnish a supply of materials. 
As far as the records of authentic history are concerned, 
they performed the functions of simple annalists : they 
related events almost in the style of public monuments, 
without any attempt at ornament, without picturesque 
detail or political reflection When Cicero compares the 
style of Fabius Pictor, Cato, and Piso, to that of the old 
Greek logographers, 1 Pherecydes, Hellanicus, and Acu- 
silaus, the points of resemblance which he instances are, 
that both neglected ornament, were careful only that 
their statements should be intelligible, and thought the 
chief excellence of a writer was brevity. Probably, the 
subject-matter of the Poman annalists was the more 
valuable, whilst the Greeks had the advantage in live- 
liness and skill. Some of the earliest historians wrote in 
Greek instead of Latin. Even, in later times, such men 
as Sulla and Lucullus, and also Cn. Aufidius, who 
flourished during the boyhood of Cicero, wrote their 
memoirs in a foreign tongue. There was some reason 



De Orat. ii. 12. 



PREVALENCE OF GREEK. 153 

for this. The language in winch the higher classes re- 
ceived their education was Greek — the tutors, even the 
nurses, were Greek, as well as the librarians, secretaries, 
and confidential servants in most distinguished families. 
Such was the humanizing spirit of literature that these 
distinguished foreigners found an asylum in the house- 
holds of noble Romans, notwithstanding the severity with 
which the law treated prisoners of war. Fashionable con- 
versation, moreover, was interlarded with Greek phrases, 
and, in some houses, Greek was habitually spoken. Even 
so late as the times of Cicero, 1 Greek literature was read 
and studied in almost every part of the civilized world, 
while the works of Latin writers were only known within 
the circumscribed limits of Italy. 

Q. Fabius Pictor. 

The most ancient prose writer of Roman history was 
Q. Fabius Pictor, the contemporary of Nsevius. He 
belonged to that branch of the noble house of the Fabii, 
which derived its distmguishing appellation from the emi- 
nence of its founder as a painter. The temple of Salus, 
which he painted, was dedicated b. c. 302, by the dic- 
tator, C. Junius Bubulcus; and this oldest known specimen 
of Roman fine art remained until the conflagration of the 
temple in the reign of Claudius. It must, therefore, have 
been subjected to the criticisms of an age capable of form- 
ing a correct judgment respecting its merits ; and it ap- 
pears from the testimony of antiquity to have possessed the 
two essentials of accurate drawing and truthful colouring, 
and to have been free from the fault of conventional 
treatment. 2 

The Fabii were an intellectual family as well as a dis- 
tinguished one : perhaps the numerous records of their 
exploits which exist were, in some degree, owing to 



Pro Arch. x. * Dion. xvi. 6 ; Nieb. II. R. iii. 356. 



154 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

their learning. The grandson of the eminent artist was 
Fabius Pictor the historian. Livy 1 continually refers to 
him, and throughout his narrative of the Hannibalian war, 
he professes implicit confidence in him on the grounds of 
his being a contemporary historian 2 (cequalem temporibus 
hujusce belli) ; he is likewise the authority on whom the 
greatest reliance was placed by Dion Cassius and Appian. 
Nor did the accurate and faithful Polybius consider him 
otherwise than trustworthy upon the whole, although 
he accuses him of partiality towards his countrymen. 3 
Niebuhr 4 attributes to Fabius Pictor the accurate know- 
ledge of constitutional history displayed by Dion Cassius, 
and acknowledges how deeply we are indebted to him for 
the information which we possess concerning the changes 
which took place in the Roman constitution. It is to 
his care that we owe the faithfulness of Dion, whilst 
Dionysius and Livy too often lead us astray. It con- 
stitutes some justification of his partiality as an historian, 
that Philinus of Agrigentum had also written a history 
of the first Punic war in a spirit hostile to Rome, and 
that this provoked Pictor to a defence of his country's 
honour. His work was written in Greek, and its prin- 
cipal subject was a history of the first and second Punic 
wars, especially that against Hannibal. It has been 
held by some, on the authority of a passage in the " De 
Oratore " of Cicero, 5 that he wrote in Latin as well as in 
Greek ; but Niebuhr believes that Cicero is in error, and 
has confused him with a Latin annalist, named F. Max. 
Servilianus. The period to which his work extended is 
uncertain ; but the last event alluded to by Livy, on his 
authority, is the battle of Trasymenus, 6 and the last 
occasion on which he mentions his name is when he 
records his return from an embassy to Delphi in 



1 Lib. i. 44, 45 ; ii. 40 ; viii. 30, &c. 2 Lib. xxii. 7. 3 Pol. i. 14. 

4 Lect. E. H. iii. xxvi. 5 Lib. ii. 12. 6 Liv. xxii. 7. 



L. CINCIUS ALIMENTUS. 155 

the following year. 1 The earlier history of Eome was 
prefixed by way of introduction ; for his object was not 
merely to assist in constructing the rising edifice of 
Roman literature, but to spread the glory of his country 
throughout that other great nation of antiquity, which 
now, for the first time, came in contact with a worthy 
rival. The Pontifical annals, the national ballads, the 
annals of his own house, so rich in legendary tales of 
heroism, furnished him with ample materials ; but he is 
also said to have drawn largely on the stores of a Greek 
author, named Diodes, a native of Peparethus, who had 
preceded him in the work of research and accumulation. 

L. Cincius Alimentus. 

Contemporary with Fabius was the other annalist of 
the second Punic war, L. Cincius Alimentus. He was 
praetor in Sicily 2 in the ninth year of the war, and took a 
prominent part in it. 3 The soldiers who fought at Cannse 4 
were placed at his disposal, his period of command was 
prolonged, and after his return home he was sent as 
Legatus to the consul Crispinus, on the occasion of the 
melancholy death of his colleague, Marcellus. 5 Some 
time after this, he was taken prisoner by Hannibal. 6 
Like Fabius, he wrote his work in Greek, and prefixed 
to it a brief abstract of early Eoman history. * Livy 
speaks of him as a diligent antiquarian, and appeals to 
his authority to establish the Etruscan origin of the 
custom of the Dictator driving a nail into the temple of 
Jupiter Optimus Maximus. 8 As his accurate investiga- 
tion of original monuments gives a credibility to his early 
history, so his being personally engaged in the war in a 
high position, renders him trustworthy in the later 



1 Lib. xxiii. ii : B. c. 216 ; a. u. c. 538. 2 A. u. c. 544 ; b. c. 210. 

:! Liv. xxvi. 23. 4 Ibid. 28. 5 Ibid, xxvii. 29. 

''' Ibid. xxi. 31. 7 Dionys. i. 0. 8 Liv. vii. 3. 



156 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

periods. It is also said that, when he was a prisoner of 
war, Hannibal, who delighted in the society of literary 
men, treated him with great kindness and consideration, 
and himself communicated to him the details of his 
passage across the Alps into Italy. 

To him, therefore, and to the opportunities which he 
enjoyed of gaining information, we owe the credibility of 
this portion of Livy's history 1 on a point on which 
authors were at variance, namely, the number of Han- 
nibal's forces at this time. Livy appeals to the state- 
ment of Cincius as settling the question, and says, Han- 
nibal himself informed Cincius how many troops he had 
lost between the passage of the Ehone and his descent 
into Italy. 

His accurate habit of mind must have made his Annals 
a most valuable work; and, therefore, it was most im- 
portant that the variation of his early chronology from 
that which is commonly received should be explained 
and reconciled. This task Niebuhr has satisfactorily 
accomplished. He supposes that Cincius took cyclical 
years of ten months, which were used previous to the 
reign of Tarquinius Priscus, in the place of common 
years of twelve months. The time which had elapsed 
between the building of Eome and this epoch was, ac- 
cording to the Pontifical annals, 132 years. The error, 
therefore, due to this miscalculation would be 132 — i^J- 
= 22 years. If this be added to the common date of 
the building of Eome, B.C. 753 = 01. vii. 2, the result 
is the date given by Cincius, namely 01. xii. 4. 2 

C. ACILIUS G-LABRIO. 

A few words may be devoted to C. Acilius Grlabrio, 
the third representative of the Grseco-Eoman historic 



1 See, on this subject, Lachmann de Font. Hist. Ti. Liv. 

2 See Dr. Smith's Diet, of Biogr. s. v. 



u. 



VALUE OF THE ANNALISTS. 157 

literature. Very little is known respecting him, He 
was Quaestor a.u.c. 551, Tribune a.tj.c. 557, and subse- 
quently attained senatorial rank ; for Gellius 1 relates that, 
when the three Athenian philosophers visited Eome as 
ambassadors, Acilius introduced them to the senate and 
acted as interpreter. His history was considered worthy 
of translation by an author named Claudius, and to this 
translation reference is twice made by Livy. 2 

Valuable though the works of these annalists must 
have been as historical records, and as furnishing ma- 
terials for more thoughtful and philosophical minds, they 
are only such as could have existed in the infancy of a 
national literature. They were a bare compilation of 
facts, the mere scaffolding and framework of history ; they 
were diversified by no critical remarks or political reflec- 
tions. The authors made no use of their facts, either to 
deduce or to illustrate principles. With respect to style 
they were meagre, insipid, and jejune. 

M. Porcttjs Cato Censobius. 

The versatility and variety of talent displayed by Cato 
claim for him a place amongst orators, jurists, ceconomists, 
and historians. It is, however, amongst the latter, as 
representatives of the highest branch of prose literature, 
that we must speak of the author of the " Origines." His 
life extends over a wide and important period of literary 
history : everything was in a state of change — morals, 
social habits, literary taste. Not only the influence of 
Greek literature, but also that of the moral and meta- 
physical creed of Greek philosophy, was beginning to be 
felt when Cato's manly and powerful intellect was flourish- 
ing. When he filled the second public office to which 
the Roman citizen aspired, Nsevius was still living. 
He was censor when Plautus died ; and, before his own 



N. A. vii. 14. 2 Lib. xxv. 39 ; xxxv. 14. 



158 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

life ended, the comedies of Terence had been exhibited on 
the Eoman stage. 

Three political events took place during his lifetime, 
which must have exercised an important influence on the 
mental condition of the Roman people. When Mace- 
donia, at the defeat of Perseus, 1 was reduced to the con- 
dition of a Eoman province, nearly a thousand Achaeans, 
amongst whom was the historian Polybius, were sent to 
Eome, and detained in Italy as hostages during nearly 
seventeen years. The thirteenth year from that event 
witnessed the dawn of philosophy at Eome, for previously 
to this epoch, the philosophical schools of Magna Grsecia 
appear to have been unnoticed and disregarded. But 
now 2 Carneades the Academic, Critolaus the Peripatetic, 
and Diogenes the Stoic, 3 came to Eome as ambassadors 
from Athens, and delivered philosophical lectures, which 
attracted the attention of the leading statesmen, whilst 
the doctrines which they taught excited universal alarm. 
The following year Crates arrived as ambassador from 
Attalus, king of Pergamus, and during his stay delighted 
the literary society of the capital with commentaries on 
the Greek poets. 4 It is not surprising that one who 
lived through a period during which Greek literature 
had such favourable opportunities of being propagated 
by some of its most distinguished professors, sufficiently 
overcame his prejudices as to learn in his old age the 
language of a people whom he both hated and despised. 

M. Porcius Cato Censorius was born at Tusculum, 
B.C. 234. 5 His family was of great antiquity, and num- 
bered amongst its members many who were distinguished 
for their courage in war and their integrity in peace. 
His boyhood was passed in the healthy pursuits of rural 
life, at a small Sabine farm belonging to his father ; and 



1 a. u. c. 586 ; b. c. 168. 2 a. u. c. 599 ; b. c. 155. 

3 Oic. de Oat. ii. 37 ; Quint, xii. 1. 4 Suet, de Gram. 111. 2 

5 De Senec. 4. 



UFK OF (WTO. 159 

his mind, invigorated by stern and hardy training, was 
early directed to the stndy as well as the practice of 
agriculture. To this rugged yet honest discipline may 
be traced the features of his character as displayed in 
after life, his prejudices as well as his virtues. 

He became a soldier at a very early age, B.C. 217, served 
in the Hannibalian war, was under the command of 
Fabius Maximus both in Campania and Tarentum, and 
did good service at the decisive battle of the Metaurus. 
Between his campaigns he did not seek to exhibit his 
laurels in the society of the capital, but, like Curius Den- 
tatus and Quinctius Cincinnatus, employed himself in the 
rural labours of his Sabine retirement. 

His shrewd remarks and easy conversation, as well as 
the skill with which he pleaded the causes of his clients 
before the rural magistracy, soon made his abilities 
known, and his reputation attracted the notice of one of 
his country neighbours, L. Valerius Flaccus, who invited 
him to his town-house at Home. Owing to the patronage 
of his noble friend and his own merits, his rise to emi- 
nence as a pleader was rapid. He was qusestor in 
in B.C. 206, sedile in b.c. 199, praetor the following year, 
and in B.C. 195 he obtained the consulship, his patron 
Flaccus being now his colleague. His province was 
Spain ; l and, whilst stern and pitiless towards his foes, he 
exhibited a noble example of self-denying endurance in 
order to minister to the welfare of his army. At the 
conclusion of his consulship, he served as legatus in 
Thrace and Greece; and in b.c. 189 was sent on a civil 
mission to Fnlvius Nobilior in iEtolia. 

After experiencing one failure, he was elected censor 
in b.c. 184 ; and he had now an opportunity of making a 
return for the obligations which his earliest patron had 
conferred upon him, for, by his influence, Flaccus was 



Liv. xxxiv. 



160 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

appointed his colleague. This office was, above all 
others, suited to his talents ; and to his remarkable 
activity in the discharge of his duties, he owes his fame 
and his surname. 

He had now full scope for displaying his habits of 
business, his talents for administration, his uncompro- 
mising resistance to all luxury and extravagance, his 
fearlessness in the reformation of abuses ; and though he 
was severe, public opinion bore testimony to his integrity, 
for he was rewarded with a statue and an inscription. 
He had now served his country in every capacity, but 
still he gave himself no rest; advancing age did not 
weaken his energies ; he was always ready as the cham- 
pion of the oppressed, the advocate of virtue, the punisher 
of vice. He prosecuted the extortionate governors of 
his old province, Spain. 1 He pleaded before the senate 
the cause of the loyal Ehodians. 

He caused the courteous dismissal of the three Greek 
philosophers, because the arguments of Carneades made it 
difficult to discern what was truth. 2 Although his pre- 
judice against Greeks prevented him sympathising with 
the sorrows of the Achaean exiles, he supported the vote 
for their restoration to their native land. Neither his 
enemies nor his country would allow him rest. In his 
eighty-sixth, year, he had to defend himself against a 
capital charge. In his eighty -ninth, he was sent to 
Africa as one of the arbitrators between the Cartha- 
ginians and Massinissa, 3 and in his ninetieth, the year in 
which he died, 4 his last public act was the prosecution 
of Galba for his perfidious treatment of the conquered 
Lusitanians. 5 



1 B. c. 171. * Plin. H. N. vii. 31. 3 a. u. c. 605. 

4 Livy (xxxix. 40) and Niebuhr (Lect. lxix.) state that Cato died at the 
age of ninety; Cicero (Brut. 15, 20, 23) and Pliny, at the age of eighty-five. 

5 Valerius Maximus relates the following anecdote of the respect in 
which this virtuous Eoman was held by his countrymen : — At the Floralia, 
the people were accustomed to call for the exhibition of dances, accom- 



CHARACTER OF CATO. 1 Gl 

Cato loved strife, and his long life was one continued 

combat. He never found a task too difficult, because 
difficulty called forth all his energies, and his strong will 
and invincible perseverance insured success. His in- 
herent love of truth made him hate anything conven- 
tional. As a politician, he considered rank valueless, 
except it depended upon personal merit, and therefore he 
was an unrelenting enemy of the aristocracy. As a 
moralist, he indignantly rejected that false gloss of 
modern fashion which was superseding the old plainness, 
and which was, in his opinion, the foundation of his 
country's glory. In literature, he distrusted and con- 
demned everything Greek, because he confounded the 
sentiments of its noblest periods as a nation with those 
of the degenerate Greeks with whom he came in contact. 
But, at length, his candid and truthful disposition dis- 
covered and confessed his error on this point, and his 
prejudices gave way before conviction. 

Cato, with all his virtues, w r as a hard-hearted man. 1 
He had no amiability, no love, no affection ; he did not 
love right, for he loved nothing, but he had a burning 
indignation against wrong. This was the mainspring of 
his conduct. He did not feel for the oppressed, but he 
declared war against the oppressor. He never could 
sympathise with living men. In his youth, all his ad- 
miration was for the past generation. In his old age, 
his feeling was that his life had been spent with the past, 
and lie had nothing in common with the present. 

As is usually the case with those who live during a 
period of transition, his feelings were so interested in 
that past by which his character was formed, that he was 



panied with acts of great indecency. Cato on one of these occasions hap- 
pened to be present, and the spectators were ashamed to malfe their usual 
demand until he had left the theatre. Martial also alludes to this anecdote 
in one of his epigrams. 
1 Hor. Od. ii. i. 

M 



162 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

incapable of discerning any good whatever in change and 
progress. For this reason he dreaded the invasion of 
refinement and civilization. Accustomed to connect virtue 
and purity with the absence of temptations, he was 
prepared to take an exaggerated view of the relation 
between polish and effeminacy, between a taste for the 
beautiful and luxury. 

He was a bitter hater of those who opposed his pre- 
judices. His enmity to Carthage sprung much more from 
his antagonism to Scipio, as the leader of the Greek or 
movement party, than from fears for the safety of Home. 
Scipio said, Let Carthage be ; therefore Cato's will was, 
let Carthage be destroyed. When his hatred of injustice 
was aroused, as, for example, by the perfidy of S. Sulpicius 
Galba towards the Lusitanians, he could support the 
cause of foreigners against a fellow-countryman. His 
character is full of apparent inconsistencies. Although 
he hated oppression, he was cruel to his slaves ; tyrannical 
and implacable, simply because he would not brook 
opposition to his will. His integrity was incorruptible, 
and yet he was a grinding usurer ; frugal in his habits, 
and notwithstanding his few wants, grasping and avari- 
cious ; but it was his love of business that he was grati- 
fying, rather than a love of money. Trade was with 
him a combat in which he would not allow an advantage 
to be gained by his adversary. Virtue did not present 
itself to Cato in an amiable form. He had but one idea of 
it — austerity ; and, as his hatred of wrong was not counter- 
balanced by a love of right, the intensity of his hatred 
was only kept in check by the practical good sense and 
utilitarian views which occupy so prominent a place in 
the Eoman character. Being himself reserved and un- 
demonstrative, he expected others to be so likewise, and 
thought it unbecoming the dignity of a Eoman to exhibit 
tenderness of feeling. On one occasion we are told that 
he degraded a Roman knight for embracing his wife in 



HIS GENIUS AND STYLE. ] 63 

the presence of his daughter. His personal appearance 
was not more prepossessing than his manners, as we 
learn from the following severe epigram ; — 1 

Uvppov, TravbaKerrjv, yKavKoufxarov, ovde Oavovra 
HopKLOV els dt8r]v lie pcreCpovrj Se'^erat. 

With his red hair, constant snarl, and grey eyes, Proserpine would 
not receive Porcins, even after death, into Hades. 

As, notwithstanding his defects, Cato was morally the 
greatest man Borne ever produced, so he was one of the 
greatest intellectually. His genius was perfectly original ; 
his character was not moulded by other men ; he had no 
education except self-education. He had immense power 
of acquiring learning, and he ransacked every source to 
increase his stores ; but he was indebted to no man for 
his opinions — they were self-formed, except those which 
he inherited, and in which his own independent convic- 
tions led him to acquiesce. He had the ability and the 
determination to excel in everything which he undertook, 
politics, war, rural economy, oratory, history. His style 
is rude, unpolished, ungraceful, because to him wit was 
artifice, and polish superficial and therefore unreal. For 
this reason he did not profit by the inconceivably rapid 
change which was then taking place in the Latin language, 
and which is evident from a comparison of the fragments 
of Cato's works with the polished comedies of Terence. 

His statements, however, were clear and transparent; 
his illustrations, though quaint, were striking ; the words 
with which he enriched his native tongue were full of 
meaning ; his wit was keen and lively, although he never 
would permit it to offend against gravity or partake of 
irreverence. 2 His arguments went straight to the 
intellect, and carried conviction with them. 

The character of Cato forms one of the most beautiful 



1 Plut. Life of Cato. 

2 Cicero tells us (Dc Orat. ii. 64) that, when censor, he degraded 
L. Nasica for an unseasonable jest. 



1G1< ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

passages in the works of Livy :* — " In hoc viro tanta vis 
animi ingeniique fait, ut, quocunque loco natus esset, 
fortunam sibi ipse facturus fuisse videretur. Nulla ars, 
neque private neque publicse rei gerendae, ei defuit. 
Urbanas rusticasque res pariter callebat. Ad summos 
honores alios scientia juris, alias eloquentia, alios gloria 
militaris provexit, Hnic versatile ingenium sic pariter 
ad omnia fuit, ut natum ad id unnm diceres, quodcunque 
ageret. In bello manu fortissimus, multisque insignibns 
clarus pugnis * idem, postquam ad magnos honores per- 
venit, summus imperator : idem in pace, si jns consuleres, 
peritissimus ; si causa oranda esset, eloquentissimus. 
Nee is tantum, cujus lingua vivo eo viguerit, monu- 
men turn eloquentise nullum exstet : vivit immo vigetque 
eloquentia ejus, sacrata scriptis omnis generis. Orationes 
et pro se multge, et pro aliis et in alios ; nam non solum 
accusando, sed etiam causam dicendo, fatigavit inimicos. 
Simultates nimio plures et exercuerunt eum, et ipse exer- 
cuit eas ; nee facile dixeris, utrum magis presserit eum 
nobilitas, an ille agitaverit nobilitatem. Asperi procul- 
dubio animi, et linguae acerbae, et immodice Hbera3 fuit ; 
sed invicti a cupiditatibus animi, et rigidse innocentise ; 
contemptor gratia^ divitiarum. In parsimonia, in patientia 
laboris, periculi, ferrei prope corporis animique ; quam 
neque senectus quidem, qu.se solvit omnia, fregerit. Qui 
sextum et octogesimum annum agens causam dixerit, 
ipse pro se oraverit, scripseritque ; nonagesimo anno Ser. 
Galbam ad populi adduxerit judicium." 



Lib. xxxix. 40. 



( 105 ) 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE ORIGIXES OF CATO — PASSAGE QUOTED BY GELLIUS — TREATISE 
DE RE RUSTICA — ORATIONS — L. CASSIUS HEMINA — HISTORIANS IN 
THE DAYS OF THE GRACCHI —TRADITIONAL ANECDOTE OF ROMULUS 
— AUTOBIOGRAPHERS — FRAGMENT OF QUADRIGARIUS — FALSE- 
HOODS OF ANTIAS— SISENNA — TUBERO. 

Cato's great historical and antiquarian work, " The 
Origines," was written in his old age. 1 Its title would 
seem to imply that it was merely an inquiry into the 
ancient history of his country ; but in reality it compre- 
hended far more than this — it was a history of Italy and 
Rome from the earliest times to the latest events which 
occurred in his own life-time. The contents of the work 
are thus described by Cornelius Nepos. 2 It is divided 
into seven books. The first treats of the history of the 
kings • the second and third of the rise and progress of 
the Italian states ; the fourth contains the first Punic 
war ; the fifth the war with Hannibal ; the remaining two 
the history of the subsequent wars down to the praetor- 
ship of Servius Gralba. 

It was a work of great research and originality. For 
his archaeological information, he had consulted the 
records and documents, not only of Rome, but of the 
principal Italian towns. It is probable that their con- 
stitutional history was introduced incidentally to the 
main narrative ; and that the rise and progress of the 



About a. u. 0. 600 a Cato, iii. 



166 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Roman constitution was illustrated by the political prin- 
ciples of the Italian nations. The " Origines " also con- 
tained valuable notices respecting the history and consti- 
tution of Carthage, 1 his embassy having furnished him 
with full opportunity for collecting materials. It was in 
fact a unique work : no other Roman historian wrote 
in the same spirit, or was equally laborious in the work 
of original investigation. 

The truthfulness and honesty of Cato must have 
rendered the contemporary part of the history equally 
valuable with the antiquarian portion. He could not 
have been guilty of flattery, he had no regard for the 
feelings of individuals. Not only he never mentions 
himself, but except in times long gone by, he never 
names any one. 2 The glory of a victory, or of a gallant 
exploit, belongs to the general, or consul, or tribune, as 
the representative of the republic. He does not allow 
either individual or family to participate in that which 
he considered the exclusive property of his country. 

Sufficient fragments of the " Origines " remain to make 
us regret that more have not been preserved ; but though 
very numerous, they are, with the exception of two, ex- 
cessively brief. One of these is a portion of his own 
speech in favour of the Rhodians ; 3 the other a simple 
and affecting narrative of an act of self-devoted heroism. 
A consular army was surprised and surrounded by the 
Carthaoinians in a defile, from which there was no 
escape. The tribune, whom Cato does not name, but 
who, as A. Grellius informs us, was Csedicius, went to the 
consul and recommended him to send four hundred men 
to occupy a neighbouring height. The enemy, he added, 
will attack them, and without doubt they will be slain to 
a man. Nevertheless, whilst the enemy is thus occupied, 



See frag of book iv. Krause. ' 2 C. Nepos in Vita. 

■ Lib. v. Krause, p. 114. 



** 



PASSAGE FROM THE ORIGIN] B. 107 

the army will escape. But, replied the consul, who 
will be the leader of this band? I will, said the tribune ; 
I devote my life to you, and to my country. The tribune 
and the tour hundred men set forth to die. They sold 
their lives dearly, but all fell. " The immortal gods," 
adds Cato, for Gellius is here quoting his very words, 
" granted the tribune a lot according to his valour. For 
thus it came to pass. Though he had received many 
wounds, none proved mortal, and when Ins comrades 
recognized him amongst the dead, faint from loss of 
blood, they took him up, and he recovered. But it 
makes a vast difference in what country a generous action 
is performed. Leonidas, of Lacedseinoii, is praised, who 
performed a similar exploit at Thermopylae. On account 
of his valour united Greece testified her gratitude in 
every possible way, and adorned his exploit with monu- 
mental records, pictures, statues, eulogies, histories. The 
Boman tribune gained but faint praise, and yet he had 
done the same and saved the Bepublic." The most 
pathetic writer could not have told the tale more effect- 
ively than the stern Cato. 

Circumstances invest his treatise "De Be Bustica " with 
great interest . The population of Borne, both patrician and 
plebeian, was necessarily agricultural. For centuries they 
had little commerce : their wealth consisted in flocks and 
herds, and in the conquered territories of nations as poor 
as themselves. The Ager Romanics, and subsequently, as 
they gained fresh acquisitions, the fertile plains, and 
valleys, and mountain sides of Italy, supplied them with 
maintenance. The statesman and the general, in the 
intervals of civil war or military service, returned, like 
Cincinnatus and Cato, to the cultivation of their fields 
and gardens. The Boman armies were recruited from 
the peasantry, and when the war was over, the soldier 
returned to his daily labour ; and, in later times, the 
veteran, when his period of service was completed, be- 



168 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

came a small farmer in a military colony. To a restless 
nation, who could not exist in a state of inactivity, a 
change of labour was relaxation; and the pleasures of 
rural life, which were so often sung by the Augustan 
poets, were heartily enjoyed by the same man whose 
natural atmosphere seemed to be either politics or 
war. 

Besides the possession of these rural tastes the 
Romans were essentially a domestic people. The Greeks 
were social ; they lived in public ; they had no idea of 
home. Woman did not with them occupy a position 
favourable to the existence of home-feeling. The Roman 
matron was the centre of the domestic circle ; she was 
her husband's equal, sometimes his counsellor, and gene- 
rally the educator of his children in their early years. 
Hundreds of sepulchral inscriptions bear testimony to 
the sweet charities of home-life, to the dutiful obedience 
of children, the devoted affection of parents, the fidelity 
of wives, the attachments of husbands. Hence, home 
and all its pursuits and occupations had an interest in 
the eyes of a Roman. For this reason there were so 
many writers on rural and domestic economy. From 
Cato to Columella we have a list of authors whose 
object was instruction in the various branches of the 
subject. They are thus enumerated by Columella him- 
self; 1 — " Cato was the first who taught the art of agricul- 
ture to speak in Latin ; after him it was improved by 
the diligence of the two Sasernse, father and son ; next it 
acquired eloquence from Scrofa Tremellius ; polish from 
M. Terentius (Varro) ; poetic power from Yirgil." To 
their illustrious names he adds those of J. Hyginus, the 
Carthaginian Mago, Corn. Celsus, J. Atticus, and his 
disciple J. Grsecinus. 

The work of Cato, " De Re Rustica," has come down 



Lib. i. i. 12. 



THK TREATISE DE RE lU'STK'A. 1 GO 

to us almost in form and substance as it was written. 
It lias not the method of a regular treatise. It is a 
commonplace-book of agriculture and domestic economy, 
under 103 heads. The subjects are connected, but not 
regularly arranged • they form a collection of useful 
instructions, hints, and receipts. Its object is utility, 
not science. It serves the purpose of a farmers' and 
gardeners' manual, a domestic medicine, a herbal, a 
cookery-book ; prudential maxims are interspersed, and 
some favourite charms for the cure of disease in man and 
beast. Cato teaches his readers, for example, how to 
plant ozier-beds, to cultivate vegetables, to preserve the 
health of cattle, to pickle pork, and to make savoury 
dishes. He is shrewd and economical, but he never 
allows humanity to interfere with profits \ for he re- 
commends his readers to sell everything which they do 
not want, even old horses and old slaves. He is a great 
conjuror, for he informs us that the most potent cure for 
a sprain is the repetition of the following hocus-pocus : x — 
"Daries dardaries astataries dissunapiter ; " or, " Huat 
hanat huat hista pista sista domiabo damnaustra ;" or, 
" Huat huat huat ista sis tar sis ordannabon dum- 
naustra." This miscellaneous collection is preceded by 
an introduction, in which is maintained the superiority 
of agriculture over other modes of gaining a livelihood, 
especially over that of trade and money-lending. 

Cato was a conscientious father. He could not trust 
Greeks, but undertook the education of his son himself. 
As a part of his system, he addressed to him, in the form 
of letters, instruction on various topics — historical, phi- 
losophical, and moral. A very few fragments of this 
work, unfortunately, remain. In one of them he re- 



1 The hocus-pocus of Cato resembles Latin about as nearly as did the 
gibberish of the Spanish witches in the days of witch-finding. "In 
nomine Patrica Aragueaco Petrica agora agora valentia jouando goure 
gaito goustra." 



170 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

commends a cursory view of Greek literature, but not a 
profound study of it. He evidently considered Greek 
writings morally dangerous ; but he entertained a still 
greater horror of their medicine. He had confidence in 
his own old-fashioned charms and rural pharmacopeia; 
but he firmly believed, as he would the voice of an oracle, 
that all the Greek physicians were banded together to 
destroy the Eomans as barbarians. 

Of the orations of Cato, ninety titles are extant, to- 
gether with numerous fragments. 1 Some of these were 
evidently judicial, but the majority deliberative. After 
what has been said of his works, it is scarcely necessary 
to describe the style of his eloquence. Unless a man is 
a mere actor, his character is generally exemplified in his 
speaking. This is especially true of Cato. He despised 
art. He was too fearless and upright, too confident in 
the justice of his cause, to be a rhetorician ; too much 
wrapt up in his subject to be careful of the language in 
which he conveyed his thoughts. He imitated no one, 
and no one was ever able to imitate him. His style was 
abrupt, concise, witty, full of contrasts ; its beauty that 
of Nature — namely, the rapid alternations of light and 
shade. Now it was rude and harsh, now pathetic and 
affecting. It was the language of debate — antagonistic, 
gladiatorial, elenchtic. 

Plutarch compares him to Socrates ; but he omits the 
principal point of resemblance, namely, that he always 
speaks as if he was hand to hand with an adversary. 
Even amidst the glitter and polish of the Augustan age, 
old Cato had some admirers. 2 But this was not the 
general feeling. The intrinsic value of the rough gem 
was not appreciated. Cicero 3 tells us that, to his 
astonishment, Cato was almost entirely unknown. The 
time afterwards arrived when criticism became a science, 



.Meyer, Frag. Rom. Orat. 2 See, ex. gr. Liv. xxxix. 40. 3 Brutus. 



L. CASSIUS HEMINA. 171 

and lie was estimated as lie deserved to be ; but this 
admiration for the antique form was not a revival of the 
antique spirit : it was only an attempt to compensate for 
its loss ; it was an imitation, not a reality. 

Such was the literary position occupied by him whom 
Niebuhr pronounces to be the only great man in his 
generation, and one of the greatest and most honourable 
characters in Eoman history. 1 

L. Cassius Hemina. 

There was no one worthy to follow Cato as an his- 
torian but L. Cassius Hemina. A. Postumius Albinus, 
consul b. c. 151, was, according to Cicero, 2 a learned and 
eloquent man, and wrote a history of Eome in Greek f 
but it was so inelegant that he apologized on the ground 
that he was a Eoman writing in a foreign language. 4 It 
is probable, also, that he was inaccurate and puerile. He 
tells us, for example, that Baise was so named after Boia, 
the nurse of one of iEneas' friends, and that Brutus used 
to eat green figs and honey. 5 

Hemina wrote Eoman annals in five or six books, and 
published them about the time of the fall of Carthage : 6 
a considerable number of fragments are extant. He was 
the last writer of this period who investigated the ori- 
ginal sources of history. His researches went back to 
very early times ; and he appears to have attempted, at 
least, a comparison of Greek and Italian chronology, for 
he fixes the age of Homer and Hesiod in the dynasty of 
the Silvii, more than 160 years after the siege of Troy. 
He relates the original legend of Cacus and the oxen of 
Hercules, the finding of Numas coffin, and the cele- 
bration of the fourth ssecular games in the consulship of 



1 Lect. R. H. lxix. 2 Brut. 3 Gell. xi. 8. 4 Serv. ^En. ix. 70. 
5 Macrob. ii. 16. 6 a. u. c. 608. 



172 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Lentulus and Mummius. 1 This was probably the last 
event of importance previous to the publication of his 
work. Only two fragments are of sufficient length to 
enable us to form any judgment respecting his style. 
Many of his expressions are very archaic, but the story 
of Cacus is told in a simple and pleasing manner. 

After Hemina, Roman history was, for some years, 
nothing more than a compilation from the old chronicles, 
and from the labours and investigations of previous 
authors. Q. Fabius Maximus Servilianus was consul 
a. u. c. 612. His Latin style must have been very defi- 
cient in euphony, if he frequently indulged in such 
words as litter osissimum, which occurs in one of the 
fragments extant. C. Fannius, praetor a. u. c. 617, wrote 
a meagre history 2 in not inelegant Latin. Yennonius, 
his contemporary, was the author of annals which are 
referred to by Dionysius. To this list of historians may 
be added C. Sempronius Tuditanus, a polished gentleman 
as well as an elegant writer. 3 

The clays of the Gracchi were very fruitful in his- 
torians and autobiographers. At the head of them 
stands L. Cselius Antipater, 4 a Roman freedman, an elo- 
quent orator, and skilful jurist. His work consisted of 
seven books, and many fragments are preserved by the 
grammarians. He seems to have delighted in the mar- 
vellous ; for Cicero quotes from him two remarkable 
dreams in his treatise on Divination. He is also 
frequently referred to by Livy in his history of the 
Punic wars, 

Contemporaneously with Cselius lived Cn. Gellius, 
whose voluminous history extended to the length of 
ninety-seven books at least. Livy seldom refers to him. 
Probably, in this instance, he acted wisely ; for he seems 



1 A. U. C. 608. * Cic. de Leg. ii. 2 ; Brut. 26. 8 Cic. Brut. 25. 

4 Ibid. 26. 



m 



ANECDOTE OF ROMULUS. 1 73 

to have boon an historian of little or no authority. Two 
other Gellii, Sextus and Aulus, flourished at the same 
time. 

Pnblius Sempronius Asellio wrote, about the middle of 
the seventh century of Borne, a memoir of the Numantian 
war. He was an eye-witness of the scenes which he 
describes, for he was tribune at Numantia under Scipio 
Afrieanus. 1 

The only constitutional history of Home was the work 
of C. Junius, who was surnamed Gracchanus, in conse- 
quence of his intimacy with C. Gracchus. It is certain 
that this work must have been the result of original 
research, as there are no remains extant of any history 
Avhicli could have furnished the materials. The legal and 
political knowledge which it contained was evidently con- 
siderable, for it is quoted by the jurists as a trustworthy 
authority. 2 

Servius Fabius Pictor 3 wrote annals ; but his principal 
work was a treatise on the Pontifical law, an anti- 
quarian record of rites and ceremonies. L. Calpurnius 
Piso Frugi Censorius w r as consul in the year in which 
Ti. Sempronius Gracchus was killed, and censor the 
year after the murder of C. Gracchus :.* he is occasionally 
quoted by Dionysius, and twice by Livy, who, on the 
points in question, consider his authority less trust- 
worthy than that of Fabius Pictor. 5 Gellius 6 quotes 
from him the following traditional anecdote of Komulus. 
Once upon a time the King was invited out to supper. 
He drank very little, because he had business to transact 
on the following day. Some one at table remarked, if 
everybody did so, wine would be cheaper. " Nay," replied 
Eomulus, " I have drank as much as I wished ; if every- 
body did so, it would be dear." 



1 Gell. ii. 13. ? See Nieb Lect. V. on Rom. Lit. 8 Brut, 21. 

4 B. c. 133. 5 Liv. i. 55. u Lib. xi. 14. 



174 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Piso was an honest man, but not an honest historian. 
He acquired the surname Frugi by his strict integrity 
and simple habits ; but his ingenuity tempted him to 
disregard historical truth. Mebuhr considers him the 
first who introduced systematic forgeries into Roman 
history. Seeing the discrepancies and consistencies be- 
tween the accounts given by previous annalists, instead 
of weighing them together, and adopting those which 
were best supported by the testimony of antiquity, he 
either invented theories in order to reconcile conflicting 
statements, or substituted some narrative which he 
thought might have been the groundwork of the mar- 
vellous legend. Mebuhr observes, that he treated history 
precisely in the same way in which the rationalists 
endeavoured to divest the Scripture of its miraculous 
character. 

M. iEmilius Scaurus, P. Putilius Pufus, and Q. Luta- 
tius Catulus were the first Eoman autobiographers ; and 
their example was afterwards followed by Sulla, who 
employed his retirement in writing his own memoirs in 
twenty -two books. Scaurus was the son of a charcoal- 
dealer, who, by his military talents, twice raised himself 
to the consulship, and once enjoyed the honour of a 
triumph. A few unimportant fragments of his personal 
memoirs are preserved by the grammarians. Putilius 
was consul a. u. c. 649 : he wrote his own life in Latin, 
and a history of Pome in Greek. 1 Catulus is praised by 
Cicero for his Latinity, who compares his style to that of 
Xenophon. 2 

The other historians, who flourished immediately before 
the literary period of Cicero, were C. Licinius Macer, 
Q. Claudius Quadrigarius, and Q. Valerius Antias. 

Macer 3 was a prolix and gossiping writer : he was 



1 Athenseus, iv. 168. 2 Brut. 35. 

3 See Cic. de Leg. i. 2 : Brut. 67. 



HISTORY OF QUADRIGAR1US. 175 

not deficient in industry ; lie spared no pains in col- 
lecting traditions ; but lie had no judgment in selection, 
and accepted all the Greek fables respecting Italy without 
discrimination. Hence he makes some statements which 
were rejected by annalists of greater authority. Niebuhr 1 
defends him, and regrets deeply the loss of his annals. 
He thinks it not improbable that Cicero's unfavourable 
criticism may have been owing to political prejudice. 
His work was voluminous, and, probably, traced the 
Roman history from the commencement to his own 
times. 

Quadrigarius is much quoted both by Livy and the 
grammarians. From the fragments extant it is clear 
that his history commenced with the Gallic wars ; and 
from a passage in Plutarch's life of Numa, 2 he appears to 
have been actuated by a motive indicative of his truth- 
fulness as an historian. He was not content with fabulous 
legends, and there were no documents in existence an- 
terior to the capture of Rome by the Gauls. His work 
consisted of twenty-three books : it carried the history, 
as is generally supposed, as far as the death of Sulla, 3 
or, as Mebuhr believed, down to the consulship of 
Cicero. 4 The longest fragment extant has been preserved 
by Gellius, and relates the combat of Manlius Torquatus 
with the mgantic Gaul. 

The style is abrupt and sententious, and the structure 
of the sentences loose ; but the story is told in a naive 
and spirited manner. One can realize the scene as the 
historian describes it — the awe of the Roman host at the 
unwonted sight — the gigantic stature, the truculent 
countenance of the Goliath-like youth — the unbroken 
silence, in the midst of which his voice of thunder uttered 
his defiance — the scorn with which he sneered and put 



1 Lect. iii. xliv. ' z Numa, c. i. See Niebuhr, Lect. III. xli. 

[i a. u. c. 678. * a. u. c. 691. 



17 G ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

out his tongue when no one accepted his challenge — the 
shame and grief of the noble Manlius — the struggle — the 
cutting off the monster's head, and the wreathing his 
own neck with the collar still reeking' with blood. 

It has been suggested that this historian received the 
surname Quadrigarius because, in the games of the Circus, 
celebrated after the victory of Sulla, he won the prize in 
the chariot race. 

No Roman historian ever made greater pretensions to 
accuracy than Valerius Antias, and no one was less trust- 
worthy. Livy, on one occasion, 1 accuses him of either 
negligence or impudent exaggeration ; but there is no 
doubt that he was guilty of the latter fault. Almost all 
the places in which he is quoted by Livy have reference 
to numbers, and in all he not only goes far beyond all 
other historians, 2 but even transgresses the bounds of pos- 
sibility. Livy never hesitates to call him a liar. In all 
cases he is guilty of falsehood; the only question is 
whether his falsehood is more or less moderate. The 
following examples are sufficient to convict him. He 
undertakes to assert that the exact number of the Sabine 
virgins was 527. 3 If one historian states that 60 engines 
of war were taken, he makes the number 6,000 ; 4 when all 
authors, Greek and Latin, unite in asserting that in 
a., u. c. 553, there was no memorable campaign, he says 
a battle was fought in which 12,000 of the enemy were 
slain and 1,200 taken prisoners. 5 In another place 10,000 
slain become 40,000 ; 6 and a fine which Quadrigarius states 
was to be paid by instalments in thirty years, he distri- 
butes only over the space of ten. 7 With matter of this 
unauthentic kind, he filled no less than seventy-five books, 



1 Lib. xxx. 19. 

2 There is one instance to the contrary (Liv. xxxviii. 23), in which Quad- 
rigarius makes the number of the slain 40,000, Antias only 10,000. 

3 Plut. Romulus, 14. 4 Liv. xxvi. 49. 5 Lib. xxxii. 6. 
Lib. xxxiii. 10. 7 Lib. xxxiii. 30. 



m 



SI8ENNA AND TUBERO. 177 

of which a large portion of passages have been preserved, 
especially by Livy. 

Hitherto, with one doubtful exception, Latin historical 
composition was in the hands of the great and noble ; the 
first historian belonging: to the order of the libertini was 
L. Otacilius Pilitns. Snetonins 1 says, that he was not only 
originally a slave, bnt that he acted as porter, and, as was 
the custom, was chained to his master's door. Nothing 
is known of his works ; it is probable, therefore, that they 
were of no merit. 

Two more important names remain to be mentioned 
amongst the annalists of this period — L. Cornelius Si- 
senna and Q. iElrus Tuber o. Sisenna, according to the 
testimony of Cicero, 2 was born between b. c. 640 and 
b. c. 630, and tilled the office of quaestor b. c. 676. He 
was, according to the same authority, a man of learning 
and taste, wrote pure Latin, was well acquainted with 
public business, and, although deficient in industry, sur- 
passed all his predecessors and contemporaries in his 
talents as an historian. Probably his style of writing ap- 
proached more nearly to that of the new school, although 
still below the Ciceronian standard. The testimony of 
Sallust is not so favourable, as he considers him not suffi- 
ciently impartial to fulfil adequately the duties of a con- 
temporary historian. 3 

No fragments are extant of sufficient length to enable 
us to form any estimate of his merits, although, on ac- 
count of the numerous unusual words which occur in 
his writings, no historian of this period has been more 
frequently quoted by the grammarians. The probability 
is that his twenty-three books are of little or no value, 
as they are never referred to in order to illustrate matters 
of historical or antiquarian interest. 

Tubero was the contemporary of Cicero, and did not 



De Clar. Rhet. 3. 2 Brut. 64 and 88. 3 Jug. 95. 



178 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

write his annals until after Cicero's consulship. Never- 
theless he must be considered as belonging to the old 
school, and its last as well as one of its most worthy 
representatives. He was the father of L. Tubero, the 
legate of Q. Cicero, in Asia. Like Piso he was a stout 
ojDponent of the Grracchic policy, and a firm supporter of 
the aristocracy. A stoic in philosophy, his life was in 
strict accordance with his creed, and his style of writing 
is said to have been marked with Catonian rudeness. He 
describes, in his history, the cruel tortures of Regulus by 
the Carthaginians, and relates the story of the wonderful 
serpent at Bagrada. 1 He is once quoted by Dionysius 
and twice by Livy. 



Gell. vi. 3, 4. 



( 179 ) 



CHAPTER XII. 

EARLY ROMAN ORATORY — ELOQUENCE OF APPIUS CLAUDIUS C^CUS 
— FUXERAL ORATIOXS — DEFENCE OF SCIPIO AFRICANUS MAJOR — 
SCIPIO AFRICANUS MINOR JEMILI ANUS— ERA OF THE GRACCHI — 
THEIR CHARACTERS — INTERVAL BETWEEN THE GRACCHI AND 
CICERO— M. ANTONIUS — L. LICLNIUS CRASSUS — Q. HORTENSIUS — 
CAUSES OF HIS EARLY POPULARITY AND SUBSEQUENT FAILURE. 

Eloquence, though of a rude unpolished kind, must have 
been in the very earliest times a characteristic of the 
Roman people. It is a plant indigenous to a free soil. 
Its infancy was nurtured in the schools of Tisias and 
Corax, when, on the dethronement of the tyrants, the 
dawn of freedom brightened upon Sicily ; and, just as in 
modern times it has flourished especially in England and 
America, fostered by the unfettered freedom of debate, so 
it found a congenial home in free Greece and republican 
Rome. He who could contrast in the most glowing 
colours the cruelty of the pitiless creditor with the suffer- 
ings of the ruined debtor — who could ingeniously connect 
those patent evils with some defects in the constitution, 
some inequalities in political rights hitherto hidden and 
unobserved — would wield at will the affections of the 
people and become the master-spirit amongst his fellow- 
citizens. 

Occasions would not be wanting in a state where, from 
the earliest times, a struggle was continually maintained 
between a dominant and a subject race, for the use of 
those arts of eloquence which Nature, the mistress of all 
art, suggests. The plebeians, in then conflicts with the 

n 2 



180 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

patricians, must have had some leader, and eloquence, 
probably to a great extent, directed the selection, even 
though there was, in reality, no Menenius Agrippa to 
lead them back from the sacred mountain with his 
homely wisdom. Cases of oppression, doubtless, inspired 
some Icilius or Virginius with words of burning indigna- 
tion, and many a Siccius Dentatus, though he had never 
learnt technical rhetoric, used the rhetorical artifice of 
appealing to his honourable wounds and scars in front 
which he had received in the service of his country, and 
to disgraceful weals with which his back was lacerated by 
the lash of the torturer. In an army where the personal 
influence of the general was more productive of heroism 
than the rules of a long-established discipline, a short 
harangue often led the soldiers to victory. And, lastly, 
the relation subsisting between the two orders of patron 
and client taught a milder and more business-like elo- 
quence — that of explaining with facility common civil 
rights, and unravelling the knotty points of the constitu- 
tional law. Oratory, in fact, was the unwritten literature 
of active life, and recommended itself by its antagonistic 
spirit and its utility to a warlike and utilitarian people. 
Long, therefore, before the art of the historian was suffi- 
ciently advanced to record a speech, or to insert a fictitious 
one as an embellishment or illustration of its pages, the 
forum, the senate, the battle-field, the threshold of the 
jurisconsult, had been nurseries of Soman eloquence, or 
schools in which oratory attained a vigorous youth, and 
prepared for its subsequent maturity. 

Tradition speaks of a speech recorded even before the 
poetry of Nsevius was written, and this speech was known 
to Cicero., It was delivered against Pyrrhus by Appius 
Claudius the blind. 1 He belonged to a house, every 



1 Appius Claudius Csecus was also author of a moral poem on Pythago- 
rean principles, which was extant in the time of Cicero (Brutus, 16). 



ELOQUENCE OF APPIUS CLAUDIUS OECUS. 181 

member of which, from the decemvir to the emperor, 
was bom to bow down their fellow-men beneath their 
strong- wills. Such a character, united with a poetical 
genius, implies the very elements of that oratory which 
would curb a nation accustomed to be restrained by force 
as much as by reason. On this celebrated occasion, 1 the 
blind old man caused himself to be borne into the senate- 
house on a litter, that he might confront the wily Cineas 
whom Pyrrhus had sent to negotiate peace. The Mace- 
donian minister was an accomplished speaker, and his 
memory, that important auxiliary to eloquence, was so 
powerful, that in one day he learnt to address all the 
senators and knights by name, yet it is said that he was 
no match for the energy of Appius and was obliged to 
quit Eome. 

Whilst the legal and political constitution of the Eoman 
people gave direct encouragement to deliberative and 
judicial oratory, respect to the illustrious dead furnished 
opportunities for panegyric. The song of the bard in 
honour of the departed warrior gave place to the funeral 
oration (la uda tio) . 

Before the commencement of the second Punic war, 2 
Q. Metellus pronounced the funeral harangue over his 
father, the conqueror of Hasdrubal; history also speaks 
of him as a debater in the senate, and his address to the 
censors is found in the fourth decade of Livy. 3 His 
funeral oration was admired even in the time of J. Csesar, 
and Pliny 4 has recorded the substance of one remarkable 
passage which it contained. The period of the second 
Punic war produced Corn. Cethegus. Cicero mentions 
him in his list of Eoman orators ; 5 and although he 
had never seen a specimen of his style, he states that he 
retained his force and vigour even in his old age. Ennius 



1 b. C. 280. 2 About B. c. 221. 3 Lib. xxxv. 8 ; xl. 46. 

4 H. N. vii. 43, 44. 5 Brut. 14, 19, de Sen. 



182 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

also bears testimony to his eloquence in the following 
line : — 

Flos delibatus populi, suaviloquenti ore. 

At the conclusion of the second war, Fabius Cunctator 
pronounced the eulogium 1 of his elder son ; and Cicero, 
although he denies him the praise of eloquence, states, 
that he was a fluent and correct speaker. 

Scipio Africanus Major, on that memorable day when 
his enemies called upon him to render an account of the 
moneys received from Antiochus, proved himself a con- 
summate orator : he disdained to refute the malignant 
charges of his opponents, but spoke till dusk of the 
benefits which he had conferred upon his country. Thus 
it came to pass that the adjourned meeting was held on 
the anniversary of Zama. Livy has adorned the simple 
words of the great soldier with his graceful language, 
but A. Grellius 2 has preserved the peroration almost in 
his own words. " I call to remembrance, Romans," said 
he, " that this is the very day on which I vanquished in 
a bloody battle on the plains of Africa the Carthaginian 
Hannibal, the most formidable enemy Rome ever en- 
countered. I obtained for you a peace and an unlooked- 
for victory. Let us then not be ungrateful to heaven, 
but let us leave this knave, and at once offer our grateful 
thanksgivings to Jove, supremely good and great." 

The people obeyed his summons — the forum was 
deserted, and crowds followed him with acclamations to 
the Capitol. 

Mention has already been made of the stern eloquence 
of his adversary Cato. He was equally laborious as a 
speaker and a writer. No fewer than one hundred and 
fifty of his orations were extant in Cicero's time, most of 
which were on subjects of public and political interest. 



Cic. Cat. 4, 12 ; de Sen. 4 ; Brut. 14, 18. 2 Noct. Attic, iv. 18. 



KU 



sci no \ruicAMs aiMILlANUS. 183 

The t'ath or of the Gracchi was distinguished amongst 
his contemporaries for a plain and nervous eloquence, but 
DO specimens of his oratory have survived. 

Seipio Africanus Minor (iEmilianus) was precisely 
qualified to be the link between the new and the old 
school of oratory. His soldierlike character displayed all 
the vigour and somewhat of the sternness of the old. 
Roman, but the harder outlines were modified by an 
ardent love of learning. His first campaign was in 
Greece, under his father iEmilius Paulus. His first 
literary friendship was formed there with the historian 
Polybius, which ripened into the closest intimacy when 
Polybius came as a hostage to Borne. Subsequently he 
became acquainted with Pansetius, who was his instructor 
in the principles of philosophy. His taste was gratified 
with Greek refinement, although he abhorred the effe- 
minacy and profligacy of the Greeks themselves. In 
the spirit of Cato, for whom he entertained the warmest 
admiration, he indignantly remonstrated against the 
inroad of Greek manners. In his speech in opposition 
to the law of C. Gracchus, he warned his hearers of the 
corruptions which were already insinuating themselves 
amongst the Roman youth. " I did not believe what I 
heard," he says, "until I witnessed it with my own eyes: 
at the dancing-school I saw more than five hundred of 
the youth of both sexes. I saw a boy, of at least twelve 
years old, wearing the badge of noble birth, who per- 
formed a castanet dance, which an immodest slave could 
not have danced without disgrace." 

The degeneracy of Greek manners had not corrupted 
his moral nature, or rendered him averse to the active 
duties of a citizen ; it had not destroyed the frankness, 
whilst it had humanized the rough honesty, of the 
Roman, and taught him to love the beautiful as well as 
the good, and to believe that the former was the proper 
external development of the latter. 



184 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

One friend, whose influence contributed to form the 
mind of Scipio, was the wise and gentle Lselius. In 
other places, as well as in the " de Amicitia," Cicero 
associates their names together. These distinguished 
friends were well suited to each other. The sentiments 
of both were noble and elevated. "Both," as Cicero 1 says, 
"were 'imprimis eloquentes. 3 " Their discrepancies were 
such as draw men of similar tastes more closely together, 
in those hours which they can devote to their favourite 
pursuits. Scipio was an active man of business — Lselius 
a contemplative philosopher : Scipio, a Roman in heart 
and soul — Lselius, a citizen of the world: Scipio was 
rather inclined to ostentatious display — Lselius was 
retiring. The former had a correct taste, spoke Latin 
with great purity, and had an extensive acquaintance 
with the literature both of Greece and his own country. 
The attainments of the latter were more solid, and his 
acquaintance with the mind of Greece more profound. 
But Lselius was not equally calculated to occupy a place 
in history ; and hence, perhaps, although a few fragments 
of the eloquence of Scipio are extant, 2 the remains of that 
of Lselius extend only to as many lines. Cheerfulness 
(hilaritas), smoothness (lenitas), and learning distin- 
guished the speeches of Lselius, whilst spirit, genius, and 
natural power marked those of Scipio. 

Servius Sulpicius Galba, whom Cato 3 prosecuted for his 
treachery to the Lusitanians, obtained from Cicero the 
praise of having been the first Roman who really under- 
stood how to apply the theoretical principles of Greek 
rhetoric. He is said likewise to have carried away with 
him the feelings of his auditors by his animated and 
vehement delivery. How skilful he was in the use of 
rhetorical artifice is shown by his parading before the 
assembly of the people, when brought to trial, his two 



Bnit. 21. 2 Meyer, Orat. Rom. Fragm, 5 b. c. 149 ; a. u. c. 605. 



ERA OF THE GRACCHI. 185 

ini ant sons, and the orphan of his friend Sulpicius Gallus. 
His tears and embraces touched the hearts of his judges, 
and the cold-blooded perjurer was acquitted. External 
artifice, however, probably constituted his whole merit. 
He had the tact thus to cover a dry and antique style, 
destitute of nerve and muscle, of which no specimen 
except only a few words remain. 

All periods of political disquiet are necessarily favour- 
able to eloquence, and the era of the Grracclri was espe- 
cially so. Extensive political changes were now esta- 
blished. They had been of slow and gradual growth, 
and were the natural development of the Roman system ; 
but they were changes which could not take place without 
the crisis being accompanied by great political convulsions. 
In order to understand the state of parties, of which the 
great leaders and principal orators were the represen- 
tatives, it is necessary to explain briefly in what these 
changes consisted. The result of an obstinate and per- 
severing struggle during nearly four centuries was that 
the old distinction of patrician and plebeian no longer 
existed. Plebeians held the consulship 1 and censorship, 2 
and patricians, like the Gracchi, stood forward as plebeian 
tribunes and champions of popular rights. 

The distinctions of blood and race, therefore, were no 
longer regarded. Most of the old patrician families were 
extinct. Niebuhr believes that at this period not more 
than fifteen patrician " gentes". remained; and the indi- 
vidual members of those which survived, if they main- 
tained their position at all, maintained it by personal 
influence. The constitutional principle which determined 
the difference of ranks was property. This line of de- 
marcation between rich and poor was not an impassable 
one like that of birth, but it had now become very broad 
and deep, owing to the accumulation of wealth in few 



A. u. C. 580. ' l a. u. c. 622. 



186 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE 

hands ; and thus between these two orders there was as 
little sympathy as there had been between the patrician 
creditors and the plebeian debtors in the earlier times of 
the republic. 

But besides this constitutional principle of distinction 
there was another of a more aristocratic nature, which 
owed its erection to public opinion. Those families the 
members of which had held high public offices were 
termed nobiles (nobles). Those individuals whose families 
had never been so distinguished were termed new men 
(novi homines). Thus a man's ancestors were made 
hostages for his patriotism ; and so trustworthy a pledge 
was hereditary merit considered for ability and fidelity 
in the discharge of high functions, that only in a few 
exceptional cases was the consulship, although open to 
all, conferred upon a new man. One consequence of all 
these changes was, that the struggle for political dis- 
tinction became hotter than ever, and the strife more 
vehement between the competitors for public favour. 

These stirring times produced many celebrated orators. 
Papirius Carbo, the ultra-liberal and unscrupulous col- 
league of Tiberius Gracchus, who united the gift of a 
beautiful voice to copiousness and fluency ; Lepidus 
Porcina, who attained the perfection of Attic gentleness, 
and whom Tib. Gracchus took as his model ; iEmilius 
Scaurus, whom Statius libelled as of ignoble birth ; 
B,utilius Bufus, who was too upright to appeal to the 
compassion of his judges j 1 M. Junius Pennus, who met 
by an insulting alien act the bill of Gracchus for the 
enfranchisement of the Italians. 

The Gracchi themselves were each in a different degree 
eloquent, and possessed those endowments and accidents 
of birth which would recommend their eloquence to their 
countrymen. Gentleness and kindness were the charac- 



De Orat. 153. 



THE MOTHER OF THE GRACCHI. 1S7 

toristics of this illustrious race. Their father, by his 
mild administration, attached to himself the ^ warm 
affection of the Spaniards. Their mother inherited the 
strong* mind and genius of Scipio. To a sound know- 
ledge of Greek and Latin literature 1 and a talent for 
poetry, she added feminine accomplishments. She danced 
elegantly, more elegantly, indeed, than according to the 
strict notions of Koman morality a woman of character 
need have done. She could also sing and accompany 
herself upon the lute. To her care in early youth the 
illustrious brothers owed the development of their natural 
endowments, and the direction of their generous prin- 
ciples. Cicero tells us that he had seen the letters of 
this remarkable woman, which showed how much her 
sons were indebted to her teaching. Greek philosophers 
aided her in her work; and the accomplished Lselius 
contributed to add grace and polish to the more solid 
portions of education. 

Notwithstanding that the political principles which the 
Gracchi embraced were the same, their characters, or, 
more properly speaking, their temperaments, widely 
differed, and their style of speaking was, as might be 
expected, in accordance with their respective dispositions. 
Tiberius was cold, deliberate, sedate, reserved. The 
storms of passion never ruffled the calmness of his 
feelings. His speaking, therefore, was self-possessed and 
grave, as stoical as his philosophical creed. His conduct 
was not the result of impulse, but of a strict sense of 
duty. Cicero termed him homo sanctissimus, and his 
style was as chastened as his integrity was spotless. 
Such, if we may trust Plutarch, was the character of his 
oratory, for no fragments remain. 

Caius, who was nine years younger than his brother, 
was warm, passionate, and impetuous : he was inferior to 



Sallust. Cat. 25. 



188 ROMA™ CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Tiberius morally, as he was intellectually his superior. 
His impulses were generous and amiable, but he had not 
that unswerving rectitude of purpose which is the result 
of moral principle. He had, however, more genius, more 
creative power. His imagination, lashed by the violence 
of his passions, required a strong curb ; but for that reason 
it gushed forth as from a natural fountain, and like a 
torrent carried all before it. On one occasion, to which 
Cicero alludes, 1 his look, his voice, his gestures, were 
so inexpressibly affecting, that even his enemies were dis- 
solved in tears. It is said that in his calmer moments 
he was conscious that his vehemence was apt to offend 
against good taste, and employed a slave to stand near 
him with a pitch-pipe, in order that he might regulate 
his voice when passion rendered the tunes unmusical. 
His education enabled him to rid himself of the harshness 
of the old school, and to gain the reputation of being the 
father of Roman prose. But his impetuosity made 
him leave unfinished that which he had well begun. 
" His language was noble, his sentiments wise, gravity 
pervaded his whole style, but his works wanted the last 
finishing stroke. There were many glorious beginnings, 
but they were not brought to perfection." 2 Several 
fragments remain which confirm the correctness of 
Cicero's criticism — one of the most beautiful is from his 
speech against Popilius Lsenas, which drove that blood- 
thirsty tyrant into voluntary exile. 

Oratory began now to be studied more as an art, and 
to be invested with a more polished garb. The interval 
between the Gracchi and Cicero boasted of many distin- 
guished names, such as those of Q. Catulus, Curio, Fimbria, 
Scsevola, Cotta, P. Sulpicius, and the Memmii. The most 
illustrious names of this epoch were M. Antonius, 
L. Licinius Crassus, and Cicero's immediate predecessor 



Orat. iii. 56. 2 Brut. 33. 



MARCUS ANT0NIUS. L89 

and most formidable rival, Hortensius. Antony and 
Qrassus, says Cicero, were the first Romans who elevated 
eloquence to the heights to which it had been raised by 
Greek genius. 1 From this complaint it may be inferred 
that, notwithstanding the popular prejudice which existed 
against Greek taste, and to which even Cicero himself 
sometimes conceived himself obliged to yield, 2 the leading 
orators had ceased to take the specimens of old Roman 
eloquence as then- models. Cicero asserts 3 that both 
Antony and Crassus owed their eminence to a diligent 
study of Greek literature, and to the instructions of Greek 
professors. The former, he says, attended regularly 
lectures at Athens and Rhodes, and the latter spoke 
Greek as if it had been his mother-tongue. Yet both 
had the narrow-minded vanity to deny their obligations : 
the}^ thought their eloquence would be more popular, the 
one by showing contempt for the Greeks, the other by 
affecting not to know them. 

M. Antonius. 

M. Antonius entered public life as a pleader, and 
thus laid the foundation of his brilliant political career ; 
bnt he was through life greater as a judicial than as a 
deliberative orator. He was indefatigable in preparing 
his case, and made every point tell : he was a great master 
of the pathetic, and knew the way to the hearts of the 
judices. He was not free from the prevailing fault of 
advocates, of being somewhat unscrupulous in his asser- 
tions ; and the reason which he is said to have given for 
never having published any of his speeches was, lest he 
should be forced to deny his words. This statement, 
however, is refuted by Cicero. 4 Although he did not 
himself give his speeches to posterity, some of his most 



Brut. 36. - Pro Rose. 25 ; pro Arch. 60 ; in. Verr. iv. 59. 

3 Orat. II. i. 4 Pro Cluent. 50. 



190 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

pointed expressions and favourite passages left an in- 
delible impression on the memories of his hearers : many 
are preserved by Cicero, who has given us also a complete 
epitome of one of them. 1 In the prime of life, he fell a 
victim to political fury ; and his bleeding head was placed 
upon the rostrum which was so frequently the scene of 
his eloquent triumphs. 

L. Licinius Crassus. 

L. Licinius Crassus was four years younger than 
Antonius, having been born B.C. 140. It is not known 
whether he was connected with the distinguished family 
whose name he bore. He commenced his career at the 
Roman bar. 2 At the early age of twenty-one, he suc- 
cessfully impeached C. Carbo, and in the year B.C. 118, 
supported the foundation of a colony at Narbo, in Gaul. 
A measure so beneficial to the poorer citizens increased 
his popularity as well as his professional fame. He 
went to Asia as quaestor, and there studied under Metro- 
dorus the rhetorician. On his way home he remained a 
short time at Athens, and attended the lectures of the 
leading professors. 

Notwithstanding his knowledge of jurisprudence, and 
his early eminence as a pleader, the speech which es- 
tablished his reputation was a political one. Under the 
Eoman judicial system, the praetor presided in court, with 
a certain number of assessors (judices), who gave their 
verdict like our jurymen. These were chosen from the 
senators. Experience proved that not only in their 
determination to stand by their order they were guilty 
of partiality, but that they had also been open to bribery. 
The knights constituted the nearest approach which could 
be found to a rich middle class. C. Gracchus, there- 
fore, by the "Lex Sempronia," transferred the ad- 



De Orat. ii. 48. 2 B.C. 122. 



L. LICTNIUS CRASSUS. 191 

ministration of justice to a body of three hundred men, 
chosen from the equestrian order. This promised to be 
a salutary change ; but so corrupt was the whole frame- 
work of Roman society, that it did not prove effectual. 
The Publicani, who farmed the revenues of the provinces, 
were all Roman knights. The new judges, therefore, 
were as anxious to shield the peculations and extortions 
of their own brethren as the old had been. 

In B.C. 106, L. Servilius Csepio brought in a bill for 
the restoration of the judicial office to the senators. In 
support of this measure (the first Lex Servilia), Crassus 
delivered a powerful and triumphant oration, in which he 
warmly espoused the cause of the senate, whom he had 
before as strenuously opposed on the question of the 
colony to Narbo. This speech was his chef-d'oeuvre. 1 
After serving the office of consul, 2 in which he 
seems to have mistaken his vocation by exchanging the 
toga for the sword, he was raised to the censorship. 3 
His year of office is celebrated for the closing the 
schools of the Latin rhetoricians by an edict of him- 
self and his colleague. The foundations of these schools 
had been laid in the ruins of the Greek schools, when the 
philosophers and rhetoricians were banished from Borne. 4 
Although the censorial power could suppress the schools, 
it could not put a stop to the education given there. 
The professors found a refuge in private mansions ; and 
thus, protected and fostered by intelligent patrons, con- 
tinued to fulfil their duties as instructors of youth. How 
often did literature at Eome have to seek an asylum from 
private patronage against the rude attacks of public pre- 
judice ! The reasons for the measure of Crassus are stated 
in the preamble. 5 These schools were a novelty ; they 
were contrary to ancient institutions ; they encouraged 



1 De Orat. i. 52 ; Brut. 43. 2 b. c. 95. 8 B. c. 92. 

4 b. c. 161 ; a. u. o. 593. 5 A. Gell. xv. ii. 



192 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

idle habits amongst the Eoman youth. Cicero defended 
this arbitrary act on the grounds that the professors 
pretended to teach subjects of which they were them- 
selves ignorant ; but Cicero could scarcely find a fault in 
Crassus. He thought him a model of perfection — the 
first of orators and of jurists. 1 He saw no inconsistency 
in his conduct in the cases of the Narbonne colony and the 
Servilian law. 3 He is lavish in his praises of his wit and 
faeetiousness (lepor et facetiae 3 ), and applies to his malignant 
and ill-natured jokes the term urbanity. The bon-mots of 
Crassus were by no means superior to the generality of 
Eoman witticisms, which were deficient in point, although 
they were personal, caustic, and severe. 4 The grave 
Eomans were content with a very little wit : the quality 
for which they looked in an oration was not playfulness, 
but skill in the art of ingeniously tormenting. Crassus 
never uttered a jest equal to that of old Cato, when he 
said of Q. Helvidius the glutton, whose house was on fire, 
" What he could not eat he has burned." 6 

His conduct with respect to the Latin schools and 
his self-indulgent life in his magnificent mansion on the 
Palatine, prove that he had retained the narrow-minded- 
ness of the old Eomans without their temperance and 
self-denial, and had acquired the luxury and taste of the 
Greeks without their liberality. If, however, we make 
some allowance for partiality, Crassus deserves the 
favourable criticism of Cicero. 6 His style is careful and 
yet not laboured — it is elegant, accurate, and perspicuous. 
He seems to have possessed considerable powers of illus- 
tration, and great clearness in explaining and defining : 
his delivery was calm and self-possessed, his action 
sufficiently vehement but not excessive. 7 He took espe- 
cial pains with the commencement of his speech. When 



1 De CI. Or. 143, 145. 2 Pro Cluent. 51. 3 De Orat. ii. 54. 

4 Cic. de Or. ii. G5 ; Plin. H. N. xxxv. 4. 5 Macrobius, Sat. 

6 See Brutus, passim. 7 Brutus, 158. 



• 



CRASSUS IN THE DE ORATORE. 193 



he was about to speak, every one was prepared to listen, 
and the very first words which lie uttered showed him 
worthy of the expectation formed. No one better under- 
stood the difficult art of uniting elegance with brevity. 

From amongst the crowd of orators which were then 
flourishing in the last days of expiring Roman liberty, 
Cicero selected Crassus to be the representative of his 
sentiments in his imaginary conversation in the de Oratore. 
He felt that their tastes were congenial. In this most 
captivating essay, he introduces his readers to a distin- 
guished literary circle, men who united activity in public 
life with a taste for refined leisure. Antony, Crassus, 
Scsevola, Cotta, and Sulpicius, met at Tusculum to talk 
of the politics of the day. For this especial purpose they 
had come, and all day long they ceased not to converse 
on these grave matters. They spoke not of lighter 
matters until they reclined at supper. Their day seemed 
to have been spent in the senate, their evening at Tus- 
culum. Next day, in the serene and sunny climate of 
Frascati, a scene well-fitted for the calm repose of a 
Platonic dialogue, Scsevola proposed to imitate the 
Socrates of Plato, and converse, as the great philosopher 
did, beneath the shade of a plane-tree. Crassus assented, 
suggesting only that cushions would be more convenient 
than the grass. So the dialogue began in which Crassus is 
made the mouthpiece to deliver the sentiments of Cicero. 

Like our own Chatham, Crassus almost died on the 
floor of the senate-house, and his last effort was in support 
of the aristocratic party. His opponent, Philippus the 
consul, strained his power to the utmost to insult him, 
and ordered his goods to be seized. His last words were 
worthy of him. He mourned the bereavement of the 
senate — that the consul, like a sacrilegious robber, should 
strip of its patrimony the very order of which he ought 
to have been a kind parent or faithful guardian. " It is 
useless," he continued, " to seize these ; if you will 

o 



194 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

silence Crassus, you must tear out his tongue, and even 
then my liberty shall breathe forth a refutation of thy 
licentiousness I" The paroxysm was too much for him, 
fever ensued, and in seven days he was a corpse. 

We must pass over numerous names contained in the 
catalogue of Cicero, mentioning by the way Cotta and 
the two Sulpicii. Cotta's taste was pure ; but his delicate 
lungs made his oratory too tame for his vehement coun- 
trymen. Publius Sulpicius had all the powers of a 
tragic actor to influence the passions, but professed that 
he could not write, and therefore left no specimens behind 
him. His reluctance to write must have been the result 
of reserve or of indolence, and not of inability, for 
nothing can be more tender and touching, and yet more 
philosophical, than his letter of condolence to Cicero on 
the death of his beloved daughter. 1 Servius, like too 
many orators, and even Cicero himself, at first despised 
an accurate knowledge of the Roman law. The great 
Scsevola, however, rebuked him, and reminded him how 
disgraceful it was for one who desired the reputation of 
an advocate to be ignorant of law. These words excited 
his emulation : he ardently devoted himself to the study 
of jurisprudence, 2 and at length is said to have surpassed 
even Scsevola himself. 

Q. Hortensius. 

The last of the pre-Ciceronian orators was Hortensius. 
Although he was scarcely eight years senior to the 
greatest of all Eoman orators, he cannot be considered as 
belonging to the same literary period, since the genius 
and eloquence of Cicero constitute the commencement of 
a new era. He was, nevertheless, his contemporary and 
his rival ; and all that is known respecting his career is 
derived from the writings of Cicero. 



De Fam. iv. 5. 2 Cic. Philip, ix. 5. 



QUINTUS HORTENSIUS. 195 

Q. Hortensius was the son of L. Hortensius, prsator of 
Sicily, b.c. 97. He was born B.C. 114 ; and, as it was the 
custom that noble Roman youths should be called to the 
bar at an early age, he commenced his career as a pleader 
at nineteen, and pleaded, with applause and success, 
before two consuls who were excellent judges of his 
merits, the orator Crassus and the jurist Scsevola. His 
first speech was in support of the province of Africa 
against the extortions of the governor. In his second 
he defended Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, against his 
brother, who had dethroned him. When Crassus and 
Antony were dead, he was left without any rival except 
Cotta, but he soon surpassed him. 1 The eloquence of 
Cotta was too languid to stand against his impetuous 
flow, and he thus became the acknowledged leader of the 
Roman bar until the star of Cicero arose. They first 
came in contact when Cicero pleaded the cause of 
Quintius, and in that oration he pays the highest possible 
compliment to the talents and genius of Hortensius. 

His political connexion with the faction of Sulla, and 
his unscrupulous support of the profligate corruption 
which characterized that administration both at home 
and abroad, enlisted his legal talents in defence of the 
infamous Verres ; but the eloquence of Cicero, together 
with the justice of the cause which he espoused, pre- 
vailed, and from that time forward his superiority over 
Hortensius was established and complete. But the ad- 
miration which Cicero entertained for his rival had 
ripened into friendship, which neither the fact of then 
being retained on opposite sides, nor even difference in 
politics, had power to interrupt. The only danger which 
ever threatened its stability was some little jealousy on 
the part of Cicero — a jealousy which must be attributed 
to his morbid temperament and susceptible disposition, 



Brut. xcii. 

o 2 



196 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

But Hortensius was always a warm and affectionate 
friend to Cicero, and Cicero was affected with the deepest 
grief when he heard of the death of Hortensius. 1 The time 
at length arrived when identity of political sentiments 
drew them more closely together ; and it is to this we owe 
the place which Hortensins so often occupies in the 
letters and other works of the great Eoman orator. 

Cicero had originally espoused the popular cause ; but 
his zeal gradually became less ardent, and the Catili- 
narian conspiracy threw him entirely into the arms of 
the aristocratic party. At the Eoman bar politics had 
great influence in determining the side taken by the 
leading advocates. They were virtually the great law 
officers of the party in the republic to which they be- 
longed, and had, as it were, general retainers on their 
own side. Hence Hortensius generally advocated the 
same side with Cicero. Together they defended Eabi- 
rius, Mursena, Flaccus, Sextius, Scaurus, and Milo ; but 
the former seems to have at once acknowledged his infe- 
riority, and henceforward to have taken but little part in 
public life. In B.C. 51, he defended his nephew from a 
charge of bribery ; but the guilt of the accused was so plain 
that the people hissed him when he entered the theatre. 2 
The following year he died, at the age of seventy -five, and 
left behind him a daughter, whose eloquence is celebrated 
in history. An oration, of which she was the author, was 
read in the time of Quintilian for the sake of its own 
merits, and not as a mere compliment to the female sex. 
Q. Hortensius has been accused of corruption; and his 
attachment to a corrupt party, his luxurious habits, extra- 
vagant expenditure, numerous villas, and enormous 
wealth, make it probable that this suspicion was not 
imfounded. He was an easy, kind-hearted, hospitable, 
but self-indulgent man. His park was a complete mena- 



1 Ad Att. vi. 6. 2 Ad Fam 



STYLE OF HIS ELOQUENCE. 197 

gerie ; Lis fish-ponds were stocked with fish so tame that 
they would feed from his hand. His gardens were so 
carefully kept that he even watered his trees with wine. 
He had a taste for both poetry and painting, wrote some 
amatory verses, and for one picture gave 140,000 sesterces 
(about 1,100/.). His table was sumptuous; and peacocks 
were seen for the first time in Eome at his banquets. His 
cellar was so well supplied that he left 10,000 casks of 
Cliian wine behind him. 1 

Cicero tells us 2 that the principal reason of Horten- 
sius' early popularity and subsequent failure was, that his 
style of eloquence was suited to the brilliance and liveli- 
ness of youth, but not the dignity and gravity of mature 
age. In those days there were two parties, 3 who differed 
in their views as to the theory of eloquence ; the one 
admired the oratory of the Attic rhetoricians, which was 
calm, polished, refined, eschewing all redundancies ; the 
other that of the Asiatic schools, which was florid and 
ornate. 

Cicero 4 tells us that the style of Hortensius' eloquence 
was Asiatic ; and as the characteristic of his own eloquence 
is Asiatic diffuseness rather than Attic closeness, and he 
often seems to consider this quality of Asiatic eloquence 
least worthy of admiration, it is possible that Hortensius 
carried it to excess, perhaps even to the borders of affec- 
tation. In a youthful orator excess of ornament is par- 
donable because it is natural ; it gives promise of future 
excellence when genius becomes sobered and luxuriance 
retrenched. 

Hortensius, a prosperous and spoilt child of nature, 
was a young man all his life : there was nothing to cast 
a gloom over his gaiety ; and to those of his auditors who 
possessed good taste this juvenility seemed inconsistent, 



1 Smith's Diet, of Antiq. s. v. a Brut. 95. 

8 Quint, xii. ; ch. x. ; Brut. Orat. ad Br. in many places. 
4 A. Gell. i. 5. 



198 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

and threw into the shade the finish, polish, and anima- 
tion which characterized his style. His delivery was pro- 
bably no less unsuitable to more advanced years. We are 
told that JEsop and Eoscins used to study his action 
as a lesson ; l and that one Torquatus sneeringly called nim 
Dionysius, who was a celebrated dancer of that day. 
His defence was clever : "I had rather," he said, " be that 
than a clumsy Torquatus." But these very anecdotes 
seem to imply that Ms delivery was somewhat foppish 
and theatrical. 

1 A. GeU. i. 5. 



( 190 ) 



CHAPTER XIII. 

STUDY OF JURISPRUDENCE— EARLIEST SYSTEMATIC WORKS ON ROMAN 
LAW — GROUNDWORK OF THE ROMAN CIVIL LAW — EMINENT 

JURISTS THE SC.EVOL^ — iELIUS GALLUS— C. AQUILIUS GALLUS 

A LAW REFORMER — OTHER JURISTS — GRAMMARIANS. 

Politics and jurisprudence were the subjects on which 
the Eomans especially pursued independent lines of 
thought ; but their jurisprudence was the more original of 
the two. Although the practical development of their 
political system was entirely the work of this eminently 
practical people, still in the theory of political science 
they were followers and imitators of the Greeks. But in 
jurisprudence the help which they derived from Greece 
was very slight. The mere famework, so far as the laws 
of the Twelve Tables are concerned, came to them from 
Athens ; but the complete structure was built up by their 
own hands : and by their skill and prudence they were 
the authors of a system possessing such stability, that 
they bequeathed it as an inheritance to modern Europe, 
and traces of Roman law are visible in the legal systems 
of the whole civilized world. 

Roman jurisprudence is, of course, a subject of too great 
extent to be treated of as its importance deserves in a 
work like the present ; but still it is so closely connected 
with eloquence that it cannot be dismissed without a few 
words. It has been already stated that arms, politics, 
and the bar were the avenues to distinction ; and thus 



200 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

many an ambitious youth who learned the art of war in 
a foreign campaign under some experienced general, oc- 
cupied himself also at home in the forum. Not only was 
the young patrician conscious that he could not efficiently 
discharge his first duty to his clients without possessing 
sufficient ability and knowledge to defend their rights in 
a court of law, but this was an effectual method of showing 
his fitness for a public career. Eminence as a juriscon- 
sult opened a direct path to eminence as a statesman. 1 
He must be like Pollio, " Insigne mcestis prcesidium reis" 
as well as " Consulenti curice." 2 

Hence the complicated principles of jurisprudence and 
of the Eoman constitution became a necessary part of a 
liberal education. The brilliant orator, indeed, did some- 
times affect to look down with contempt on such black- 
letter and antiquarian lore, and stigmatise it as pedantry, 3 
but still common sense compelled the sober-minded to 
acknowledge the necessity of the study. They saw that 
in the courts eloquence could only be considered as the 
handmaid to legal knowledge, even though the saying of 
Quintilian were true — " Et leges ipsce nihil valent nisi 
actoris idoned voce munitce."* When, therefore, a Eoman 
youth had completed his studies under his teacher of 
rhetoric, he not only frequented the forum in order to 
learn the practical application of the oratorical principles 
which he had acquired, and frequently took some cele- 
brated orator as a model, but also studied the principles 
of jurisprudence under an eminent jurist, and attended 
the consultations in which they gave to their clients their 
expositions of law. In fact, the young Eoman acquired 
his legal knowledge in the atrium of the jurisconsult, 
somewhat in the same manner that the law student of 
the present day pursues his education in the chambers of 



1 Cic. Muraen. 8, 19. ; Off. ii. 19, 65. 2 Hor. Od. II. i. 13. 

3 Cic. pro Muraen. 4 Inst. Or. xii. 7. 



WORKS ON ROMAN LAW. 201 

a barrister. He studied the subject practically and em- 
pirically rather than in its theory and general principles. 

Almost all the knowledge which we possess is derived 
from the labours of writers who flourished long after con- 
stitutional liberty had expired.. 

The earliest systematic works on Eoman law were 
the Enchiridion or Manual of Pomponius, and the Insti- 
tutes of Graius, who flourished in the times of Hadrian 
and the Antonines. Both these works were for a long 
time lost, although numerous fragments were preserved 
in the Pandects or Digest of Justinian. In 1816, how- 
ever, Niebuhr discovered a palimpsest MS., in which the 
Epistles of St. Jerome were written over the erased Insti- 
tutes of Graius. But owing to the decisions and inter- 
pretations of the great practising jurists, to the want of 
any system of reporting and recording, and to the nume- 
rous misunderstandings of the Eoman historians respect- 
ing the laws and constitutional history of their country, 
the whole subject long continued in a state of confusion : 
new contradictory theories had been gradually introduced, 
and old difficulties had not been explained and reconciled. 
Gian Baptista Yico, in his Scienza Nova, was the first 
who dispelled the clouds of error and reduced it to a 
system ; and his example was afterwards so successfully 
followed by Niebuhr, that modern students can understand 
the subject more clearly, and have a more comprehensive 
antiquarian knowledge of it, than the writers of the 
Augustan age. 

The earliest Eoman laws were the Leges Regice, which 
were collected and codified by Sextus Papirius, and were 
hence called the Papirian Code. But these were rude 
and unconnected — simply a collection of isolated enact- 
ments. The laws of the Twelve Tables stand next in 
point of antiquity. They exhibited the first attempts at 
regular system, and embodied not only legislative enact- 



202 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ments but legal principles. 1 So popular were they that 
when Cicero was a child every Eoman boy committed 
them to memory as our children learn their catechism, 2 
and the great orator laments that in the course of his 
lifetime this practice had become obsolete. The explana- 
tion of these laws was a privilege confined to the pon- 
tifical college. This body alone prescribed the form of 
pleading, and published the days on which the courts 
were held. Hence, not only the whole practice and ex- 
position of the law was in the hands of the patricians, 
but they had also the power of obstructing at their plea- 
sure all legal business. But in the censorship of Appius 
Claudius, his secretary, Cn. Flavius, set up, at the sug- 
gestion of Appius, a Calendar in the Forum, which made 
known to the public the days on which legal business 
could be transacted. In vain the patricians endeavoured 
to maintain their monopoly by the invention of new for- 
mulae, called Notes, for Tiberius Coruncanius, the first 
plebeian Pontifex Maximus, who was consul a. u. c. 474, 
opened a public school of jurisprudence, and in the middle 
of the next century 3 the " Notes " were published by 
Sextus iElius Catus. 

The oral traditional expositions of these laws formed the 
groundwork of the Eoman civil law. To these were added 
from time to time the decrees of the people (plebiscita), 
the acts of the senate (senatus-consulta), and the praeto- 
rian edicts, which announced the principles on which each 
successive praetor purposed to administer the statute law. 

Such were the various elements out of which the whole 
body of Eoman law was composed; and in such early 
times was the subject diligently studied and expounded 
that the latter half of the sixth century a. u. c. was rich in 
jurists whose powers are celebrated in history. Besides 



De Orat. 44. 2 De Leg. ii. 23. 3 a. u. c. 552, 



THE se.Kvoi, .?■:. 203 

S. /Elius Catus, already mentioned, P. Licinins Crassus, 
sumamed " the Rich," who was consnl a. u. c. 549, is 
mentioned by Livy 1 as learned in the pontifical law, the 
canon law of the ancient Romans. L. Acilius also wrote 
commentaries on the laws of the Twelve Tables ; and to 
these may be added T. Manlins Torqnatus, consnl a. u. c. 
5S9, S. Fabins Pictor, and another member of the same 
distinguished family, Q. Fabius Labeo, Cato the Censor 
and liis son Porcins, Cato Licinianus, and lastly P. Cor- 
nelius Nasica, whose services as a jurist were recognised 
by the grant of a house at the public expense. 

The most eminent jurists who adorned the next century 
were the ScaBvolse. In their family the profession of the 
jurisconsult seems to have been hereditary ; of so many 
bearing that distinguished name, it might have been 
said that their house was the oracle of the whole state : 
" Domus jurisconsulti totius oraculum civitatis." 2 Quintus 
the augur was Cicero's first instructor in the science of 
law : his cousin Publius enjoyed also a high reputation ; 
and Quintus, the son of Publius, who became Cicero's 
tutor after the death of his elder kinsman, combined the 
genius of an orator with the erudition of a jurist, and was 
called by his distinguished pupil " the greatest orator 
among jurists and the greatest jurist among orators." 
The compiler of the Digest also quotes as authorities 
S£. ManiHus and M. Junius Brutus. 3 Manilius is 
one of the characters introduced in Cicero's dialogue 
de Republica : he was consul a. u. c. 604, and is said to 
have been the author of seven legal treatises ; but of all 
these, except three, Cicero denies the authenticity. Brutus 
was the son of the ambassador of that name who was 
employed in the war with Perseus, and left a treatise in 
three books on the civil law. 4 

In the next century flourished one iElius Gallus, who 



Lib. xxx. 1. * De Or. i. 45. 3 Dig. I. ii. 39. 4 Dc Or. ii. 55. 



204 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

was somewhat senior to Cicero, and was the author of a 
treatise on the signification of law terms. Several of 
his definitions are given by Festus, and fragments are 
preserved by A. Gellius, 1 and in the Digest. By some he 
has been considered identical with iElius Gallus, the 
prefect of Egypt in the reign of Augustus, 2 who was the 
friend of the geographer Strabo; but as there is little 
doubt that he is quoted by Yarro, 3 such identity is im- 
possible, since Yarro died b. c. 28, and yet he speaks of 
Gallus as an aged man. Another distinguished jurist of 
this era was his namesake C. Aquilius Gallus. He was 
a pupil of Q. Mucius Scsevola, and surpassed all his con- 
temporaries in that black-letter knowledge of law, which 
in olden time was more highly valued than in the more 
brilliant days of Cicero. Learning then began to be 
ridiculed and lightly esteemed, and oratorical powers were 
more admired in proportion as the Eoman mind became 
more alive to the refinements and beauties of language. 

But Gallus was most eminent as a law reformer. The 
written law of Eome presented by its technicality the 
greatest impediments to actions on the unwritten prin- 
ciples of common right and equity. To obviate this he 
invented legal fictions, L e. formulae by which the effects 
of the statute could be annulled without the necessity of 
abrogating the statute itself. His practice must have 
been large, for Pliny mentions that he was the owner 
of a splendid palace on the Yiminal Hill. 4 In b. c. 67, 
he served the office of praetor together with Cicero, and 
both before and after that he frequently sat as one of the 
judices. Cicero pleaded before him in the defence both 
of Csecina and Cluentius. 

Besides Aquilius Gallus, three of the most distin- 
guished jurists, who were a few years senior to Cicero, 



1 Lib. xvi. 5 ; Dig. L. 16, 157. 2 B.C. 24, 25. 

3 De Lat. Lin. iv. 2 : iv. 10 ; v. 7. 4 H. N. vii, 1. 



GRAMMARIANS. 205 

owed their legal knowledge to the instructions of Mucius 
Scsevola. These were — C. Juventius, Sextus Papirius, 
and L. Lucilius Balbus, the last of whom is mentioned 
by Cicero, 1 and his works are quoted by his eminent pupil 
Sulpicius Bums. 

Grammarians. 

Towards the conclusion of this literary period a great 
increase took place in the numbers of those learned men 
whom the Eomans termed " Litterati" 2 but afterwards, 
following the custom of the Greeks, Grammarians, 
(Grammatici). 3 To them literature was under deep 
obligations. Although few of them were authors, and all 
of them men of acquired learning rather than of original 
genius, they exercised a powerful influence over the 
public mind as professors, lecturers, critics, and school- 
masters. By them the youths of the best families not 
only were imbued with a taste for Greek philosophy and 
poetry, but also were taught to appreciate the literature 
of their own country. 

Suetonius places at the head of the class Livius An- 
dronicus and Enuius ; but their fame as poets eclipses 
their reputation as mere critics and commentators. 

The first professed grammarian whom he 'mentions is 
Crates Mallotes, who, between the first and second Punic 
wars, was sent to Eome by Attalus. The unfortunate 
ambassador fell into an open drain and broke his leg, and 
beguiled the tediousness of his confinement by reading a 
course of philological lectures. After him C. Octavius 
Lampadio edited the works of Nsevius ; Q. Vargunteius 
those of Ennius ; and Lselius, Archelaus, Yectius, and Q. 



- De Orat. iii. 21. 

2 Cornelius Nepos ait litteratos quidem vulgo appellari eos qui aliquid 
diligenter et acute scienterque possint aut dicere aut scribere. 

3 Sueton. de Illust. Gram. 



206 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Philocomus read and explained to a circle of auditors the 
Satires of Lucilius. 

Most of these grammarians were emancipated slaves : 
some were Greeks, some barbarians. Saevius Nicanor 
and Aurelius Opilius were freedmen : the latter had 
belonged to the household of some Epicurean philosopher. 
Cornelius Epicadus was a freedman of Sulla, and completed 
the Commentaries which his patron left unfinished, and 
Lenseus was freedman of Pompey the Great. M. Pompilius 
Andronicus was a Syrian ; M. Antonius Gnipho, though 
of ingenuous birth, a Gaul. Servius Clodius, however, 
and L. iElius Lanuvinus were Eoman knights. Nor 
were the labours of these industrious scholars confined to 
Eome or even to Italy, for Octavius Teucer, Siscennius 
lacchus, and Oppius Chares gave instructions in the pro- 
vince of Gallia Togata. 

To the names already mentioned may be added those 
of L. iElius Stilo, who accompanied L. Metellus Numi- 
dicus into exile, and Valerius Cato, who not only taught 
the art of poetry, but was himself a poet. 

We have now traced from its infancy the rise and 
progress of Eoman literature, and watched the gradual 
opening of the national intellect. The dawn has gently 
broken, the light has steadily increased, and is now suc- 
ceeded by the noon-day brilliance of the " golden age." 



( 207 ) 



BOOK II. 

THE ERA OF CICERO AND AUGUSTUS. 



CHAPTEK I. 

PROSE THE TEST OF THE CONDITION OF A LANGUAGE — DRAMATIC 
LITERATURE EXTINCT— MBIES — DLFFERENCE BETWEEN ROMAN 
AND GREEK MLMES — LABERDJS — PASSAGES FROM HIS POETRY^ — 
MATTUS CALVENA — MIMIAMBI — PUBLIUS SYRUS— ROMAN PANTO- 
MIME — ITS LICENTIOUSNESS — PRINCIPAL ACTORS OF PANTOMIME. 

During trie period upon which we are now entering, 
Eoman literature arrived at its greatest perfection. The 
time at which it attained the highest point of excellence 
is fixed by Kiebuhr 1 about a. u. c. 680, when Cicero was 
between thirty and forty years old. Poetry, indeed, still 
continued to improve, as regarded metrical structure and 
diction, in finish, smoothness, and harmony. There is 
ex. gr. in these respects a marked difference between the 
works of Lucretius and Virgil; but nevertheless the 
principles of language now became fixed and settled. In 
fact, the condition of a language must be judged of by its 
prose ; so must likewise the .state of perfection to which 
its literature has attained. If poetry could be with pro- 
priety assumed as the standard, the commencement of 
the empire of Augustus would constitute the best age of 
Latin literature, rather than the time when the forum 



Lect. R. H. cvi. 



208 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

echoed with the eloquence of Cicero ; but in the two ages 
of Cicero and Augustus, taken together as forming one 
era, is comprehended the golden age both of poetry and 
prose. 

Dramatic literature, however, never recovered from the 
trance into which it had fallen. The stage had not 
altogether lost that popularity which it had possessed in 
the days of Attius and Terence, for iEsopus and Eoscius, 
the former the great tragedian, the latter the favourite 
comedian, in the time of Cicero, amassed great wealth. 
iEsopus lived liberally, 1 and yet bequeathed a fortune to 
his son, and Eoscius is said to have earned daily the sum 
of thirty-two pounds. 

Notwithstanding, also, the degradation attached to the 
social position of an actor, both these eminent artists 
enjoyed the friendship of Cicero and other great men. 
They brought to the study of their profession industry, 
taste, talent, and learning, and these qualities were appre- 
ciated. iEsopus was on one occasion encored a countless 
number of times (milliesf by an enthusiastic audience, 
and Eoscius was elevated by Sulla to the equestrian 
dignity. But although the standard Eoman plays were 
constantly represented, dramatic literature had become 
extinct. No one wrote comedy at all, and the tragedies 
of Yalgius Eufus and Asinius Pollio were only intended 
for reading or recitation. Nor, as has been already 
shown, does the Thyestes of Varus really form an excep- 
tion to this statement. 

The dramatic entertainments which had now taken the 
place of comedy and tragedy were termed mimes. 

Their distinguishing appellation was derived from the 
Greek, but they entirely differed from those compositions 
to which the Greeks applied that title. The latter were 
written not in verse but in prose ; 3 they were dialogues, 

1 Plin. H. N. v. 72. 2 Cic. pro Sen. 

3 Schlegel Lect. viii. ; Miiller's Dor. iv. 7, 5. 



MIMES OF THE ROMANS. 209 

not dramatic pieces, and though they were exhibited at 
certain festivals, and the parts supported by actors, they 
were never represented on the stage. Even when 
Sophron, whose compositions were admired and imitated 
by Plato, 1 raised them to their highest degree of per- 
fection, and made them vehicles of serious moral lessons, 
mingling together ludicrous buffoonery with grave phi- 
losophy, their language was only a rhythmical prose, 
probably somewhat resembling that in which the cele- 
brated despatch of Hippocrates 2 was written. Some idea 
may be formed of their nature from the fact that the 
idylls of Theocritus were imitated from the mimes of 
Sophron, and that Persius took them for his model in his 
peculiarly dramatic satires. 3 

The Eoman mimes were laughable imitations of 
manners and persons. So far they combined features of 
comedy and farce ; for comedy represents the characters 
of a class — farce those of individuals. Their essence was 
that of the modem pantomime ; mimicry and burlesque 
dialogue were only accidentally introduced. Their coarse- 
ness and even indecency 4 gratified the love of broad 
humour, which characterized the Roman people. They 
became successful rivals of comedy, and thus came to be 
admitted on the public stage. It is most probable that, 
like other dramatic exhibitions, they originally grew out 
of the Fabuke Atellanae, which they afterwards super- 
seded. But notwithstanding their indecency, their satire 
upon the living, and their burlesque representations of 
the illustrious dead when exhibited at funereal games, 
they had sometimes, like the mimes of Sophron, a moral 
character, and abounded in shrewd wisdom and noble 
sentiments. 5 Schlegel asserts that there is a great afihrity 
between the Roman mimes and the pasquinades and 

1 Diog. Laert. iii. 18. 2 Xen. Hell. i. 23. 

3 Midler's Dorians, Trans, ii. 374. * Or. Tr. ii. 515. 

5 Cic. pro Rab. 12 ; de Orat. ii. 59. See also fragm. of Syrus' Mimes. 

P 



210 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

harlequinades of modern Italy. He conjectures that in 
them may be traced the germ of the Comedie delV Arte, 
and states that the very picture of Polichinello is found in 
some of the frescos of Pompeii. 

After a time when mimes became established as 
popular favourites, the dialogue or written part of the 
entertainment occupied a more prominent position, and 
was written in verse like that of tragedy or comedy. In 
the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, a Roman knight, named 
Decius Laberius, became eminent for his mimes. Re- 
specting his merits, we have few opportunities of forming 
a judgment, as the fragments of his writings 1 are but few 
and short ; but Horace 2 speaks of them in unfavourable 
language, and finds fault with their carelessness and want 
of regular plan. He was born about B.C. 107, 3 and died 
b.c. 45, at Puteoli (Pozzuoli). The profession of an 
actor of mimes was infamous ; but Laberius was a writer, 
not an actor. It happened, however, that P. Syrus, who 
had been first the slave, then the freedman and pupil of 
Laberius, and lastly a professional actor, challenged all 
his brethren to a trial of improvisatorial skill. Caesar 
entreated Laberius to enter the lists, and offered him five 
hundred sestertia (about 4,000/.) . Laberius did not submit 
to the degradation for the sake of the money, but he was 
afraid to refuse. The only method of retaliation in his 
power was sarcasm. His part was that of a slave, and 
when his master scourged him, he exclaimed, " Porro, 
Quirites, libertatem perdimus !" His words were received 
with a round of applause, and the audience fixed their 
eyes on Caesar. On another occasion his attack on the 
Dictator was almost threatening : — 

Necesse est multos timeat quern multi timent. 



1 Bothe, Po. Sc. Lat. fragm. vol. v. 

2 Sat. i. x. 6. See also Sen. Controv., and Met). H. R. ii„ p. 169. 

3 Hieron. Eus. Chron. 



MIMES OF LABERIUS. 211 

He appears to have been always quick and ready in 
repartee. When, on being vanquished by his adversary 
Syrus, the Dictator said to him with a sneer — 

Favente tibi me victus es Laberi a Syro. 

He replied with the following sad but true reflections : — 

Noil possunt primi esse omnes omni in tempore, 
Summum ad gradum cum claritatis veneris 
Consistes segre ; et quum descendas decides ; 
Cecidi ego, cadet qui sequitur, laus est publica. 

Caesar, however, restored to him the rank and equestrian 
privileges of which his act had deprived him ; but still he 
could not recover the respect of his countrymen. As he 
passed the orchestra in his way to the stalls of the 
knights, Cicero cried out, "If we were not so crowded 
I would make room for you here/' Laberius replied, 
alluding to Cicero's lukewarmness as a political partizan, 
"I am astonished that you should be crowded, as you 
generally sit on two stools." The calm and feeling 
rebuke with which, in the prologue to his mime, he 
remonstrated against the tyranny of Csesar, is singularly 
spirited and beautiful : — 

Necessitas, cujus cursus transversi impetum 
Voluerunt multi effugere, pauci potuerunt, 
Quo me detrusit psene extremis sensibus ? 
Quern nulla ambitio, nulla unquam largitio, 
Nullus timor, vis nulla, nulla auctoritas 
Movere potuit in juventa de statu ; 
Ecce in senecta ut facile labefecit loco 
Viri excellentis mente clemente edita 
Submissa placide blandiloquens oratio ! 
Etenim ipsi Dii negare cui nihil potuerunt, 
Hominem me denegare quis possit pati ? 
Ergo bis tricenis actis annis sine nota 
Eques Eomanus lare egressus meo 
Domum revertas mimus ; Nimirum hoc die 
Uno plus vixi mihi quam vivendum fuit 
Fortuna, immoderata in bono seque atque in malo, 
Si tibi erat libitum literarum laudibus 

p 2 



212 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Floris cacumen nostrse famae frangere, 
Cur quum vigebam niembris preeviridantibus, 
Satisfacere populo et tali cum poteram viro, 
Non flexibilem me concurvasti ut carperes ? 
Nunc me quo dejicis ? quid ad scenam affero ? 
Decorem formse, an dignitatem corporis, 
Animi virtutem, an vocis jucundse sonum ? 
Ut hedera serpens vires arboreas necat, 
Ita me vetustas amplexa annorum enecat, 
Sepulchri similis nihil nomen retines. 

O, strong Necessity ! of whose swift course 

So many feel, so few escape the force, 

Whither, ah whither, in thy prone career, 

Hast thou decreed this dying frame to bear ? 

Me, in my better days, nor foe nor friend, 

Nor threat, nor bribe, nor vanity could bend ; 

Now, lured by flattery, in my weaker age 

I sink my knighthood and ascend the stage. 

Yet muse not therefore — how shall man gainsay 

Him whom the Deities themselves obey ? 

Sixty long years I've lived without disgrace 

A Roman knight ! — let dignity give place ; 

I'm Caesar's actor now, and compass more 

In one short hour than all my life before. 

Fortune ! fickle source of good and ill, 

If here to place me was thy sovereign will, 

Why, when I'd youth and faculties to please 

So great a master, and such guests as these, 

Why not compel me then, malicious power, 

To the hard task of this degrading hour ? 

Where now, in what profound abyss of shame, 

Dost thou conspire with Fate to sink my name ? 

Whence are my hopes ? What voice can age supply 

To charm the ear, what grace to please the eye ? 

Where is the active energy and art, 

The look that guides its passion to the heart ? 

Age creeps like ivy o'er my withered trunk, 

Its bloom all blasted and its vigour shrunk ; 

A tomb where nothing but a name remains 

To tell the world whose ashes it contains. 

Cumberland. 



Another poet of this age who composed mimes was 
C. Matius, surnamed, from his baldness, Calvena. His 
mimes were termed Mimiambi, because he wrote in the 



CA1US MAT1US AND PUBLIUS SYRUS. 213 

iambic measure, 1 and lie was also a translator of the 
Iliad as well as the author of a work on cookery. His 
principal merit is said to have been his skill in enriching 
his native language by the introduction of new words. 2 
He was somewhat younger than Laberius, and enjoyed 
the friendship of the greatest amongst his contemporaries. 
His intimacy with Julius Caesar, 3 to whom he was 
warmly attached, 4 and afterwards with Augustus, 5 gave 
him great influence ; 6 but he never took much part in the 
political strife which embittered his times, nor did he use 
his influence in order to procure his own advancement. 

His retired habits and love of literary leisure saved 
him from seeking his happiness in the excitements of 
ambition. Cicero, who loved him dearly, often mentions 
him in his letters, and pays a compliment' to his learning 
and amiability. An interesting letter of his, which is 
preserved in the collection of Cicero's epistles to his 
friends, 8 shows that he possessed an accomplished mind 
and an affectionate heart. It cannot be supposed, there- 
fore, that his Mimiambi were debased by the too common 
faults of coarseness and immodesty. . 

Publius Syrtjs. 

Publius Syrus was, as his name implies, originally a 
Syrian slave, and took his pramomen from the master 
who gave him his freedom. All that is known respecting 
his life has already been stated in the account of Laberius. 
The commendations which his mimes received from the 
ancients, especially from Cicero, 9 Seneca, 10 and Pliny, 11 
prove them to have been much read and admired. The 
fragments which still remain are marked by wit and 



1 PI. Ep. vi. 21. 2 A. Gell. xv. 25. 3 Suet. Cses. 52. 

* Cic. ad Fam. x. 28. 5 PI. H. N. xii. 2, 6. 6 Tac. An. xii. 60. 

7 Ad Fam. vii. 15. 8 Ibid. xi. 28. 9 Ibid. xii. 18. 

" Sen. Controv. vii. 3 ; Ep. 8, 94, 108. » PI. H. N. viii. 61 



214 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

neatness, and the shrewd wisdom of proverbial philosophy. 
Tradition has also recorded a bon-mot of his, which is as 
witty as it is severe. Seeing once an ill-tempered man, 
named Mucius, in low spirits, he remarked, " Either some 
bad fortune has happened to Mucius, or some good 
fortune to one of his friends." An accurate knowledge 
of human nature, exhibited in pointed and terse language, 
most probably constituted the charm of this species of 
scenic literature. The large collection of his proverbial 
sayings, entitled P. Syri Sententice, are by no means all 
genuine ; but the nucleus around which the collection has 
grown by successive additions is undoubtedly his, and 
those which are the work of after ages are formed after 
the model of his apothegms. 

The Roman pantomime differed somewhat from the 
mime — it was a ballet of action performed by a single 
dancer. It was first introduced in its complete form in 
the reign of Augustus ; and Suidas, 1 misquoting a passage 
from Zosimus, 2 groundlessly attributes the invention to 
the emperor himself. As the mime bore some resem- 
blance to the Atellan farces, so the pantomime resembled 
the histrionic performances introduced by Livius Andro- 
nicus. In both, the person who recited the words 
(canticum) 3 was different from him who represented the 
characters. In the pantomime, the canticum was sung by 
a chorus arrayed at the back of the stage. Until the 
times of the later emperors, when vice was paraded with 
unblushing effrontery, women never acted in pantomime ; 
but the exhibition itself was sensual and licentious in its 
character, 4 and the actors of it were deservedly deemed 
infamous, and forbidden by Tiberius to hold any inter- 
course with Eomans of equestrian or senatorial dignity. 5 
Nero, however, outraged public decency by himself 



'OpxW"> 2 Hist - Rom - *■ 3 P1 - E P- vii - 24 « 

4 Juv. vi. 65. 5 Tac. Ann. i. 77. 



LICENTIOUSNESS OP PANTOMIME. 215 

appearing in pantomime. 1 Fortunate was it for the 
dignity of Rome that the face of the emperor was con- 
coaled behind a mask which, unlike the performers in the 
mimes, the pantomimic actors always wore. The players 
not only exhibited the human figure in the most graceful 
attitudes, but represented every passion and emotion with 
such truth that the spectators could without difficulty 
understand the story. Sometimes tlie scenes represented 
were founded upon the Grreek tragic drama ; but for its 
purifying effect was substituted the awakening of licen- 
tious passions. 

These were the exhibitions which threw such discredit 
on the stage — which called forth the well-deserved attacks 
of the early Christian fathers, and caused them to declare 
that whoever attended them was unworthy of the name 
of Christians. Had the drama not been so abused, had it 
retained its original purity, and carried out the object 
attributed to it by Aristotle, they would have seen in it 
not a nursery of vice, but a school of virtue — not only an 
innocent amusement, but a powerful engine to form the 
taste, to improve the morals, and to purify the feelings of 
a people. 

The principal actors of pantomime in the reign of 
Augustus were Bathyllus, Hylas, and Pylades. In the 
reign of Nero the art was practised by Latinus, 2 and 
Paris, who taught the emperor to dance, and subsequently 
was put to death by Nero, when he became his rival for 
popular applause. 3 But those who attained the highest 
degree of popularity were another Latinus, and another 
Paris, who flourished in the reign of Domitian. Both 
have been immortalized in the epigrams of Martial. 4 To 
the former, Martial attributes the power to fascinate such 



1 Suet. Ner. 16, 26. 2 Juv. i. 35 ; vi. 44. 3 Suet. Ner. 54. 

4 Lib. ix. 29 ; xi. 13. 



216 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

stern and rigid moralists as resembled Cato, the Curii 
and Fabricii. The epitaph concludes with these lines : — 

Vos me laurigeri parasitum dicite Phoebi 
Roma sui famulum dum sciat esse Jo vis. 

Say ye I gained the laurelled Phoebus' love, 
So that Rome hail me servant of her Jove. 

The latter, by his popularity, acquired great influence 
at Court, but his profligacy proved his ruin. He in- 
trigued with the Empress Domitia ; and Domitian con- 
sequently divorced his wife, and caused Paris to be 
assassinated. He has furnished a plot and a hero to 
Massinger's play of the " Roman Actor." The simple 
and beautiful epitaph written to his memory by Martial 
is as follows : — 

Quisquis Flaminiam teris, viator, 
Noli nobile preeterire marmor. 
Urbis delicise, salesque Nili, 
Ars et gratia, lusus et voluptas ; 
Romani decus et dolor theatri, 
Atque omnes Veneres, Cupidinesque, 
Hoc sunt condita, quo Paris, sepulchro. 

Whoe'er thou art, traveller, stay ! 

Mark what proud tomb adorns the way. 

The town's delight, the wit of Nile, 

Art, grace, mirth, pleasure, sport and smile : 

The honour of the Roman stage, 

The grief and sorrow of the age : 

All Venuses and Loves lie here 

Buried in Paris' sepulchre. 



( 217 



CHAPTER II. 

LUCRETTUS A POET RATHER THAN A PHILOSOPHER— HIS LIFE — EPIC 

STRUCTURE OF HIS POEM VARIETY OF HIS POETRY — EXTRACTS 

FROM HIS POEM — ARGUMENT OF IT — THE EPICUREAN DOCTRINES 
CONTAINED IN IT — MORALITY OF EPICURUS AND LUCRETIUS — 

testimonies of virgil and ovid — catullus, his life, charac- 
ter, and poetry — other poets of this period. 

Lucretius Carus (born b. c. 95). 

Lucretius Carus might claim a place amongst philoso- 
phers as well as poets, for his poem marks an epoch both 
in poetry and philosophy. But his philosophy is a mere 
reflexion from that of Greece, whilst his poetry is bright 
with the rays of original genius. A delineation, there- 
fore, of his characteristics as a writer of the imagination 
will present the more accurate idea of the place which he 
occupies amongst Eoman authors. It was no empty 
boast of his, that, as a poet, he deserved the praise of 
originality — that he had opened a path through the ter- 
ritory of the Muses, untrodden before by poet's foot — that 
he had drawn from a virgin fountain, and culled fresh 
flowers whence the Muse had never yet sought them to 
wreathe a garland for the poet's brow. 1 

Few materials exist for the compilation of his bio- 
graphy. From two passages 2 in his work, in which he 
states that his native language was Latin, it is clear that 
he was born within the limits of Italy. The date of his 
birth is generally fixed b. c. 95. 3 The prevalence of the 



Lib. i. 925 ; iv. I. a Lib. i. 831 ; iii. 261. 3 Clint. F. H 



218 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Epicurean philosophy, and the additional popularity 
with which his talents invested the fashionable creed, 
combined to raise him to the equestrian dignity ; and, 
consistently with his cold and hopeless atheism — his 
proud disbelief in a superintending Providence — he died 
by his own hand in the prime of life and in the forty- 
fourth year of his age. 1 The story that his work was 
written in the lucid intervals of a madness produced by 
a love-potion, as well as his residence at Athens for the 
purpose of study, rest upon no foundation. 

His poem On the Nature of Things is divided into 
six books, and is written in imitation of that of Empe- 
docles, who is the subject of his warmest praise and 
admiration. "Whilst its subject is philosophical and its 
purpose didactic, its unity of design, the one point of 
view from which he regards the various doctrines of the 
master whose principles he adopts, claim for it the rank 
of an epic poem. 

This epic structure prevents it from being a complete 
and systematic survey of the whole Epicurean philosophy ; 
but, notwithstanding this deficiency in point of compre- 
hensiveness, the exactness and fidelity with which he 
represents those doctrines which he enunciates, renders 
him deserving of the credit of having given to his country- 
men, as far as epic writing permitted, an accurate view 
of the philosophical system which then enjoyed the 
highest degree of popularity. 

Although Greek philosophy furnished Lucretius with 
his subject, and a Greek poem served as a model, he also 
saw and valued the capabilities of the Latin language — 
he wielded at will its power of embodying the noblest 
thoughts, and showed how its copious and flexible pro- 
perties could overcome the hard technicalities of science. 
Grand as were his conceptions, the language of Lucretius 



Hier. Chron. 



VARIETY OF LUCRETIUS. 219 

is not inferior to tliem in majesty. Without violating 
philosophical accuracy, he never appears to feel it a re- 
straint to his muse : his fancy is always lively, his imagi- 
nation has free scope even when his thoughts are fixed on 
the abstrusest theories, and engaged in the most subtle 
argumentation. 1 

The great beauty of the poetry of Lucretius is its 
variety. One might expect sublimity in the philosopher 
who penetrates the secrets of the natural world, and dis- 
closes to the eyes of man the hidden causes of its won- 
derful phenomena. His object was a lofty one ; for, 
although the irrational absurdities of the national creed 
drove him into the opposite evils of scepticism and un- 
belief, his aim was to set the intellect free from the tram- 
mels of superstition. But besides grandeur and sublimity 
we find the totally different poetical qualities of softness 
and tenderness. Eome had long known nothing but war, 
and was now rent by that worst and most demoralizing 
kind of war, civil dissension. Lucretius yearned for 
peace ; and his prayer, that the fabled goddess of all 
that is beautiful in nature would heal the wounds which 
discord had made, is distinguished by tenderness and 
pathos even more than by sublimity. The whole passage 
is superior to the poetry of Ovid in force although in- 
ferior in facility. His versification is not so smooth and 
harmonious as that of Yirgil, who nourished in a period 
when the language had attained a higher degree of per- 
fection, and the Roman ear was more educated and there- 
fore more delicately attuned, but it is never harsh and 
rugged, and always falls upon the ear with a swelling 
and sonorous melody. Yirgil appreciated his excellence, 
and imitated not only single expressions, but almost 
entire verses and passages. 2 



1 The criticism of Cicero is unjust: — "Lucretii pocmata ita sunt non 
multis luminibus ingenii multse tamen artis." — Ep. ad Qu. fratr. ii. 11. 

2 See A. Gell. Noct. Att. i. 21. 



220 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

As an example of sublimity, few passages can equal 
that in which he describes the prostration of human 
intellect under the grievous tyranny of superstition, the 
dauntless purpose of Epicurus to free men from her op- 
pressive rule, and to enable him to burst open the portals 
of Nature's treasure-house, and thus gain a victory which 
will place him on an equality with the inhabitants of 
heaven: — 

Humana ante oculos fede quom vita jaceret 

In'terris, oppressa gravi sub Religione, 

Quas caput a cceli regionibus ostendebat, 

Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans ; 

Primum Graius homo mortales tendere contra 

Est oculos ausus, primusque obsistere contra ; 

Quern neque fama deuin nee fulmina nee minitanti 

Murmure compressit ccelum, sed eo magis acrem 

Irritat animi virtutem, effringere ut arcta 

Naturae primus portarum claustra cupiret. 

Ergo vivida vis animi pervicit et extra 

Processit longe flammantia mcenia mondi, 

Atque omne immensum peragravit mente animoque ; 

Unde refert nobis victor, quid possit oriri, 

Quid nequeat ; finita potestas denique quoique 

Quanam sit ratione, atque alte terminus hserens. 

Quare Religio, pedibus subjecta, vicissim 

Obteritur ; nos exeequat victoria ccelo. Lib. i. 63. 

The idea which the poet here presents to the mind of 
his readers is of the same kind with that which pervades 
the writings of the Greek tragedians ■ it is that of the 
limited energies of mortals resolutely struggling with a 
superior and almost irresistible power. 

The thrilling narrative of the plague at Athens, with 
all its physical and moral horrors, is one of the most 
heart-rending specimens of descriptive poetry. The stern 
rejection of all fear of death, though based upon a denial 
of the immortality of the soul, is a noble burst of poetical 
as well as philosophical enthusiasm ; and the fifth book 
displays that perfect finish and accomplished grace which 
characterizes all the best Eoman poets. Amongst the 
most affecting passages may be enumerated those which 



QUOTATIONS FROM LUCRETIUS. 221 

describe the early sorrows of the human race and the grief 
of the bereaved animal whose young one has been slain in 
sacrifice. 1 Two other fine passages are the philosophical 
explanation of Tartarus, and the panoramic view of the 
tempest of human desires, seen from the rocky heights of 
philosophy — a glorious descriptive piece which has been 
imitated by Lord Bacon. 

The following lines show how beautifully the poet 
has caught the spirit and feeling of Greek fancy, and how 
capable the Lathi language now was of adequately ex- 
pressing them : — 

Aulide quo pacto Triviai virginis arani 
Iphianassai turparunt sanguine fede 
Ductores Danaum delectei, prima virorum 
Cui simul infula, virgineos circumdata comtus, 
Ex utraque pari nialarum parte profusa est ; 
Et moestum simul ante aras astare parentem 
Sensit, et hunc propter ferrum celare ministros, 
Aspectuque suo lacrumas effundere civeis ; 
Muta metu, terrain genibus summissa, petebat : 
Nee miserse prodesse in tali tempore quibat, 
Quod patrk> princeps donarat nomine regem 
Nam sublata virum manibus, tremebundaque, ad aras 
Deducta est ; non ut, solenni more sacrorum 
Perfecto, posset claro comitari hymen£eo ; 
Sed, casta incerte, nubendi tempore in ipso, 
Hostia concideret mactatu mcesta parentis, 
Exitus ut classi felix faustusque daretur. 
Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum ! 

By that Diana's cruel altar flowed 
With innocent and royal virgin's blood ; 
Unhappy maid ! with sacred ribands bound, 
Keligious pride ! and holy garlands crowned ; 
To meet an undeserved, untimely fate, 
Led by the Grecian chiefs in pomp and state ; 
She saw her father by, whose tears did flow 
In streams — the only pity he could show. 
She saw the crafty priest conceal the knife 
From him, blessed and prepared against her life ! 
She saw her citizens, with weeping eyes, 
Unwillingly attend the sacrifice. 



Lib. ii. 352. 



222 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Then, dumb with grief, her tears did pity crave, 

But 'twas beyond her father's power to save. 

In vain did innocence, youth, and beauty plead ; 

In vain the first pledge of his nuptial bed ; 

She fell — even now grown ripe for bridal joy — 

To bribe the gods, and buy a wind for Troy. 

So died this innocent, this royal maid : 

Such fiendish acts religion could persuade. Creech. 

It cannot be denied that there are in the poem of 
Lucretius many barren wastes over which are scattered 
the rubbish and debris of a false philosophy ; but even in 
these deserts the oases are numerous enough to prevent 
exhaustion and fatigue. They recur too frequently to 
enumerate them all. If the attempt were made, other 
tastes would still discover fresh examples. 

The following is, in a few words, the plan and struc- 
ture of the poem : — Its professed object is to emancipate 
mankind from the debasing effects of superstition by an 
exposition of the leading tenets of the Epicurean school. 
It is divided into six books. In the first, the poet enun- 
ciates and copiously illustrates the grand axiom of his 
system of the universe, together with the corollaries 
which necessarily arise from it. " Nothing is created 
out of nothing." He commences also the subject of the 
atomic theory. In the second book he pursues the sub- 
ject of creation generally, and the various functions of 
animal life. The third treats of the nature of the soul. 
The fourth contains the theory of sensation, especially of 
sight ; of the relation which thought bears to matter ; of 
the passions, and especially of the influence of love, both 
physical and moral. The fifth book is devoted to the 
history of mankind. The sixth explains the phenomena 
of the natural world, including those of disease and death. 

The following are the leading Epicurean doctrines em- 
bodied in the poem : — There are divine beings, but they 
are neither the creators 1 nor the governors of the world. 2 



Lib. v. 166. 2 Lib. vi. 378. 



ARGUMENT OF THE POEM. 223 

They live in the enjoyment of perfect happiness and 
repose, regardless of human affairs, unaffected by man's 
virtues and vices, happiness or misery. Neither have 
they the power any more than the will to interfere in 
the atlliirs of the world, for they cannot resist the eternal 
laws of nature and destiny. Whilst, in deference to the 
innate sense which revolts at the denial of a God, he 
acknowledges the existence of divine beings, the proofs 
which he adduces as derived from his great master are 
weak and unsatisfactory. 1 The corollary of this disbelief 
in Divine Providence is practical atheism. The ideas 
which man entertains of God are false, because they are 
the mere creations of the imagination. Ignorant of the 
real causes which lead to natural phenomena, he conjures 
up these as the machinery to account for them. 2 The 
popular belief is groundless ; and yet the poet believes 
that if this system is overthrown there is nothing to sup- 
ply its place, and hence all worship, whether prayer or 
praise, is grovelling superstition. 3 The only true piety 
consists in calm and peaceful contemplation. 4 

To those who argue that unbelief leads to ungodliness, 
his answer is, that what man calls religion has led to the 
greatest crimes. 5 He is not entirely destitute of the 
religious sentiment or the principle of faith, for he deifies 
Nature 6 and has a veneration for her laws ; and hence Iris 
infidelity must be viewed rather in the light of a philo- 
sophical protest against the degrading results of heathen 
superstition than a total rejection of the principle of reli- 
gious faith. 

It is here that Lucretius seems for a while to leave the 
authority of Epicurus ; and, with the inspiration of a poet, 
which is hardly consistent with a total absence of vene- 
ration and faith, to forsake his cold and heartless system. 



1 Lib. vi. 75. 2 Lib. v. 83, 1163. 3 Lib. v. 1197. 

4 Lib. v. 1202. 5 Lib. i. 81. 6 Lib. i. 71, 147. 



224 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Although he asserts that the phenomena of nature are 
the result of a combination of atoms, that these ele- 
mentary particles are self-existent and eternal, he seems 
to invest Nature with a sort of personality. The warm 
sensibility of the poet overcomes the cold logic of the 
philosopher. Dissatisfied with the ungenial idea of an ab- 
stract lifeless principle, he yearns for the maternal caresses 
of a being endued with energies and faculties with which 
he can sympathise. He therefore ascribes to Nature an 
attribute which can only belong to an intelligent agent 
and overruling power. Nay, he even goes farther than this, 
and absolutely contradicts the dogmas of the Epicurean 
school. Even the works of nature are represented as 
instinct with life. 1 The sun is spoken of as a being who, 
by the warmth of his beams, vivifies all things. The 
earth, from whose womb all things spring, fosters and 
nurtures all her children. The very stars may possibly 
be living beings, performing their stated motions in 
search of their proper sustenance. 2 These are, doubtless, 
the fancies of the poet rather than the grave and serious 
belief of the philosopher ; but they prove how false, 
hollow, and artificial is a system which pretends to ac- 
count for creation by natural causes, and how earnestly 
the human mind craves after the comfort and support of 
a personal deity. 

The denial of the immortality of the soul is inferred 
from the destructibility of the material elements out of 
which it is . composed. It must perish immediately that it 
is deprived of the protection of the body. 3 In accordance 
with this psychical theory, he accounts for the difference 
of human tempers and characters. Character results 
from the combination of the elementary principles : — a 
predominance of heat produces the choleric disposition ; 
that of wind produces timidity ; that of air a calm and 



1 See Ratter, iv. p. 89. 2 Lib. v. 525. 3 Lib. iii. 265, 413. 



MORALITY OF EPICURUS AND LUCRETIUS. 225 

equable temper. 1 But this natural constitution, the 
strength of the will, acted upon by education, is able, to a 
certain extent, to modify though it cannot effect a com- 
plete change. Thus it is that, although moral as well as 
physical phenomena are produced in accordance with 
fixed laws, human ills result from unbridled passions, and 
may be remedied by philosophy. 

Although, if tried by a Christian standard, the Lucre- 
tian morality is by no means pure, 2 yet even where he 
permits laxity he is not insensible to the moral beauty, 
the happy and holy results, of purity and chastity. 3 JSTor, 
notwithstanding the assertions of Cicero, 4 can the charge 
of immorality or of a selfish love of impure pleasure be 
made against Lucretius or Epicurus. The distinction 
winch the latter drew between lawful and unlawful plea- 
sures was severe and uncompromising. The former 
speaks of the hell which the wicked sensualist always 
carries within his own breast 5 — of the satisfaction of true 
wisdom, 6 and of a conscience void of offence.' 

Again, Epicurus was a man of almost Christian gentle- 
ness. Stoical grossness and contempt of refinement 
revolted him ; the unamiable severity of that sect was 
alien to his nature. He was thus driven to the opposite 
extreme ; and although he was careful to make pure 
intellectual pleasure the summum bonum, his standard 
laid him open to objections from his jealous adversaries. 
The zeal with which many distinguished females devoted 
themselves to his system, and became his disciples because 
his doctrines and character especially recommended them- 
selves to the female sex, made it easy for his enemies to 
stigmatise them as effeminate, instead of praising them as 
feminine. With that illiberality which refused to woman 
freedom of conduct and a liberal education, his adversaries 



1 Lib. iii. 302. B Lib. iv. 1072. 3 Lib. v. 1012. 4 De Fin. ii. 22. 
5 Lib. v. 1152. G Lib. iii. 988. 7 Lib. ii. 7. 



226 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

calumniated the characters of his pupils, represented them 
as unchaste, and their instructor as licentious. Nor did 
they hesitate even to support these accusations by forgeries. 1 
A careless reception of their calumnies without inves- 
tigation, added to the general, and perhaps wilful, misap- 
prehension which prevailed among the Eomans in the 
days of Cicero, led to the misrepresentations which are 
found in his writings. These have been handed down 
to after ages ; and thus the doctrines taught by Epicurus 
have been loaded with undeserved obloquy. 2 There is, 
however, no doubt that Epicurism was adopted by the 
Eomans in a corrupt form, and that it became fashion- 
able because it was supposed to encourage indifferentism 
and sensuality. It is probable, too. that the denial of 
immortality contributed much to the depravation and 
distortion of his system. Nothing so surely demoralizes 
as destroying the hopes of eternity. Man cannot com- 
mune with Grod, or soar on high to spiritual things, unless 
he hopes to be spiritualized and to see Grod as He is. 
Whatever the philosopher may teach as to the true 
nature of happiness, man will set up his own corrupt 
standard, which his passions and appetites lead him to 
prefer : he will act on the principle " Let us eat and 
drink, for to-morrow we die." Still it must be confessed 
that the views of Epicurus respecting man's duty to God 
were disinterested — founded on ideas of the Divine perfec- 
tions, not merely on hopes of reward. 3 His views of sen- 
sual pleasures were in accordance with his simple, frugal 
life, diametrically opposed to intemperance and excess. 
He taught by example as well as by precept, that he who 
would be happy must cultivate wisdom and justice, be- 
cause virtue and happiness are inseparable. He attached 
his disciples to him by affection rather than by admira- 
tion; submitted to weakness and sickness with patient 



Diog. La. x. 3. ' 2 Sen. cle Benef. iv. 19. 3 Diog. La. x. 



TESTIMONIES OF VIRGIL AND OVID. 227 

resignation ; and died with a heroism which no Stoic 

could have surpassed. 

Such was the master whom Lucretius followed, and 
the school to which he belonged ; and, though the stern- 
ness of the Eoman character breathed into his protest 
against superstition a bolder spirit of defiance than that 
of the placid and resigned Greek, his teaching was equally 
pure and noble, and he would have proudly disdained to 
make philosophy a cloak for voluptuous profligacy. Poets 
who surpassed him in gracefulness, and who were fortu- 
nate enough to nourish when the Latin language had 
become more plastic, paid due honour to his greatness. 
Virgil celebrates the happiness of that man : — 

qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, 

Atque nietus oirmes, et inexorabile fatum 
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari. 1 

His muse is instinct with Lucretian spirit when he 
describes with such graphic skill the murrain attacking 
the brute creation ; 2 and Ovid exclaims that the sublime 
strains of Lucretius shall never perish until the day shall 
arrive when the world shall be given up to destruction. 

Catullus (born b.c. 86). 

Contemporary with the great didactic poet, but nine 
years his junior in age, flourished C. Valerius Catullus. 
He was a member of a good family, residing on the Lago 
di Garda, in the neighbourhood of Verona, 3 and his father 
had the honour of frequently receiving Csesar as his 
guest. 4 At an early age he went to Rome, probably for 
education, but his warm temperament and strong passions 
plunged him into the licentious excesses of the capital. 
During this period of his career, passed in the indulgence 
of pleasure and gaiety, and in the midst of a dissipated 



1 Gcorg. ii. 490. 2 Georg. iii. 478. 3 Plin. xxxvii. 6. 

4 Suet. v. Jul. 73. 

Q2 



228 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

society, he had no more serious occupation than the culti- 
vation of his literary tastes and talents. The elegant 
tenderness of his amatory poetry made him a favourite 
with the fair sex, for its licentiousness was not out of 
keeping with the sentiments and conversation prevalent 
in the Roman fashionable world. It must not be sup- 
posed that the tone of society amongst the higher classes 
was pure and moral, like that of Cicero and his friends, 
or that it was not marked by the same licentious freedom 
which polluted some even of their most graceful poems. 

The poetry of Catullus was such as might be expected 
from the tenor of his life. The excuse which he made 
for its character was not a valid one j 1 for the line in 
Hadrian's epitaph on Yoconius could not possibly be 
applied to him : — 

Lascivus versu, mente pudicus eras. 2 

His mistress, whom he addresses under the feigned name 
of Lesbia, was really named Clodia. 3 It has been said 
that she was the sister of the infamous Clodius ; but there 
are no grounds for the assertion. 

A career of extravagance and debauchery terminated in 
ruin, and though his fortune had been originally ample, 
his aifairs became hopelessly embarrassed ; and in order to 
retrieve them by colonial plunder, he accompanied Mem- 
mius, the friend of Lucretius, when he went as prsetor to 
Bithynia. Owing, however, to the grasping meanness of 
his patron his expectations were disappointed. He re- 
turned home " with his purse full of cobwebs." Still he 
enjoyed the privilege of visiting those cities of Greece and 
Asia which were the most celebrated for literature and the 
fine arts. 

When he went to Asia he visited the grave of a bro- 
ther who had died in the Troad, and who was buried on 



1 See Carm. cxvi. 2 Anthol. 208. 3 Apuleius. 



CATULLUS AT THE GRAVE OF HIS BROTHER. 229 

the Khaetian promontory ; and a poem which he ad- 
dressed on the occasion to Hortalus, the dissipated son of 
the orator ILortensius, as well as another dedicated to 
Manlius, bear witness to the warmth of liis fraternal 
affection. The former is a beautiful and touching speci- 
men of his elegiac style : — 

Multaa per gentes et rnulta per sequora vectus, 

Adveni has niiseras frater ad inferias. 
Ut te postremo donareni miinere mortis 

Et mutuin nequidquam alloquerer cinerem. 
Quandoquidem fortuna rnihi tete abstulit ipsum 

Has miser indigne frater adempte mihi ! 
Nunc tainen iuterea prisco quae more pareutum 

Tradita sub tristes munera ad inferias 
Accipe fraterno multum manantia netu 

At que in perpetuum frater ave atque vale ! 

On his return to Borne he resumed his old habits, and 
died in the prime of life, probably B.C. 47, as that is the 
latest date to which allusion is made in his writings. 

His works consist of numerous short fugitive pieces 
of a lyrical character; elegies, such as that already quoted; 
a secular hymn to Diana ; a poem, somewhat of a dithy- 
rambic character, entitled Atys ; and the Epithalamium 
of Peleus and Thetis, a mythological poem in heroic 
verse. His taste was evidently formed on a study of the 
Greek poets, from whom he learnt not only his beautiful 
hendecasyllables, but also their modes of thought and 
expression. He had skill and taste to adopt the materials 
with which his vast erudition furnished him, and to 
conceal his want of originality and inspiration. Some of 
his pieces are translations from the Greek, as, for example, 
the elegy on the hair of Berenice, which is taken from 
the Greek of Callimachus, and the celebrated ode of 
Sappho. 1 He was one of the most popular of the Eoman 
poets — firstly, because he possessed those qualities which 
the literary society of Borne most highly valued, namely, 



Carm. li. 



230 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

polish and learning ; and secondly, because, although he 
was an imitator, there is a living reality about all that he 
wrote — a truly Roman nationality. He did not merely 
disguise the inspiration of Greece in a Latin dress, but 
invested Eoman life, and thoughts, and social habits with 
the ideal of Greek love and beauty. For these reasons 
his fame nourished as long as Eome possessed a classical 
literature. Two eminent men only have withheld their 
admiration— -Horace in the golden age ; Quintilian in the 
period of the decline. The former disparages hini as a 
lyrical poet ; the latter almost passes him over in silence. 
Horace was jealous of a rival who was so nearly equal to 
himself: he could not bear the remotest chance of his 
claim being disputed to be the musician of the Eoman 
lyre ;* and he dishonestly declared that he first adapted 
iEolian strains to the Eoman lyre, 2 notwithstanding the 
Lesbian character and hendecasyllabic metres of his 
predecessor. Quintilian could not appreciate Catullus, 
because his own taste was too stiff and affected, and spoilt 
by the rhetorical spirit of his age. 

Catullus had a talent for satire, but his satire was not 
inspired by a noble indignation at vice and wrong. It 
was the bitter resentment of a vindictive spirit : his love 
and his hate were both purely selfish. His language of 
love expresses the feelings of an impure voluptuary ; his 
language of scorn those of a disappointed one. He 
gratified his irritable temper by attacking Csesar most 
offensively ; but the noble Eoman would not crush the 
insect which annoyed him ; and although Catullus insulted 
him personally by reading his lampoons in his presence, 
not a change passed over his countenance : he would not 
stoop to avenge himself ; and the imperial clemency dis- 
armed the anger of the libeller. The strong prejudice of 
Niebuhr in favour of Eoman antiquity led him to pro- 



Od. IV. iii. 23. * Od. III. xx. 13. 



(llAR.UTLJl OF HIS POETRY. 231 

nouiKV Catullus a gigantic and extraordinary genius, 
equal in every respect to the lyric poets of Greece pre- 
viously to the time of Sophocles : he believed him to be 
the greatest poet Rome ever possessed, except, perhaps, 
some few of the early ones ; but that great man also 
thought that Virgil had mistaken his vocation in becom- 
ing an epic instead of a lyric poet. 1 Catullus certainly 
pos sessed great excellences and talents of the most allur- 
ing and captivating land. No genius ever displayed 
itself under a greater variety of aspects. He has the 
playfulness and the petulance of a girl, the vivacity and 
shnphcity of a child. He has never been surpassed in 
gracefulness, melody, and tenderness. No one, unless 
he possessed the coolness and self-command of a Caesar, 
could have avoided wincing under the sharp attacks of 
his wit : he had passion and vehemence, but he had not 
the grandeur and sublimity either of Lucretius or Virgil. 

Although the peculiar characteristics of his poetry are 
chiefly to be found in his lyric and elegiac poems, there 
are in his longer pieces, which are less known and less 
admired, passages of singular sweetness and beauty. He 
had not sufficient grasp and comprehensiveness of mind 
to conduct an epic poem. His knowledge of human 
nature, confined as it was to one of its phases — the de- 
velopment of the softer affections — did not admit of suffi- 
cient variety for so vast a work. His intellectual taste, 
like his moral principles, was too ill-regulated to construct 
a well-digested plan, necessary to the perfection of an 
epic poem; but wherever ingenuity and liveliness in 
description, or pathos in moving the affections, are 
required, the poetry of Catullus does not yield to that of 
Ovid or of Virgil. 

The poem, entitled the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, 
bears some slight resemblance to an heroic poem. Its subject 



Lect. cvi. 



232 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

is heroic, for it embodies a legend of the heroic age. The 
characters of mythology play a part in it, similar to that 
which they support in the poems of Homer or Virgil. 
But it is unconnected and deficient in unity ; and the 
plan is far too extensive for the dimensions by which it 
is circumscribed. Nevertheless, with all these faults, it is 
pleasing on account of the luxuriance of its fancy and 
the brilliancy of its genius. The most beautiful passage, 
perhaps, is the episode relating the story of Theseus and 
Ariadne, which is introduced into the main body of the 
poem as being woven and embroidered on the hangings 
of the palace of Peleus. The following verses are taken 
from this episode, 1 and form part of the complaint of 
Ariadne for the perfidious desertion of Theseus : — 

Siccine discedens, neglecto numine Divum, 
Immemor ah ! devota domum perjuria portas 1 
Nullane res potuit crudelis flectere mentis 
Consilium ? tibi nulla fuit dementia praesto, 
Immite ut nostri vellet mitescere pectus ? 
At non haec quondam nobis promissa dedisti 
Voce ; mihi non hoc miserae sperare jubebas ; 
Sed connubia laeta, sed optatos hymeneeos ; 
Quae cuncta aerii discerpunt irrita venti. 
Jam jam nulla viro juranti fceniina credat, 
Nulla viri speret sermones esse fideles ; 
Qui, dum aliquid cupiens animus praegestit apisci, 
Nil metuunt jurare, nihil promittere parcunt ; 
Sed simul ac cupidae mentis satiata libido est, 
Dicta nihil metuere, nihil perjuria curant. 
Certe ego te in medio versantem turbine leti 
Eripui, et potius germanum amittere crevi, 
Quam tibi fallaci supremo in tempore deessem. 
Pro quo dilaceranda feris dab or, alitibusque 
Praeda, neque injecta tumulabor mortua terra. 
Quaenam te genuit sola sub rupe leaena ? 
Quod mare conceptum spumantibus exspuit undis ? 
Quae Syrtis, quae Scylla vorax, quae vasta Charybdis, 
Talia qui reddis pro dulci praemia vitae ? 
Si tibi non cordi fuerant connubia nostra, 
Saeva quod horrebas prisci praecepta parentis ; 
Attamen in vestras potuisti ducere sedes, 



1 Lib. v. 132, 166. 



COMPLAINT OF AKTADNE. 233 

Quae tibi jucundo femularer sown labore, 

Candida permulcena liquidis vestigia lyniphis, 

Purpureave tuum consternens veste cubilo. 

Sod quid ego ignaris nequicquam conqueror auris, 

Externata malo ? quoe nullis sensibus auctee 

Nee missas auclire queunt, nee reddere voces. — 132-161. 

And couldst thou, Theseus, from her native land 
Thy Ariadne bring, then cruel so 
Desert thy victim on a lonely strand ? 
And didst thou, perjured, dare to Athens go, 
Nor dread the weight of heaven's avenging blow ? 
Could nought thy heart with sacred pity touch ? 
Nought make thy soul the baleful plot forego 
'Gainst her that loved thee ? Ah ! not once were such 
The vows, the hopes, thy smooth professions did avouch ! 

Then all was truth, then did thy honied tongue 
Of wedded faith the flattering fable weave. 
All, all unto the winds of heaven are flung ! 
Henceforth let never listening maid believe 
Protesting man. When their false hearts conceive 
The selfish wish, to all but pleasure blind, 
No words they spare, no oaths unuttered leave ; 
But when possession cloys their pampered mind, 
No care have they for oaths, no words their honour bind. 

For this, then, I from instant death did cover 
Thy faithless bosom ; and for this preferred, 
Even to a brother's blood, a perjured lover ; 
Now to be torn by savage beast and bird, 
With no due form, no decent rite, interred ! 
What foaming sea, what savage of the night, 
In murky den thy monstrous birth conferred 1 
What whirlpool guides and gave thee to the light, 
The welcome boon of life thus basely to requite 1 

What though thy royal father's stern command 
The bond of marriage to our lot forbade, 
Oh ! safely still into thy native land 
I might have gone thy happy serving maid ; 
There gladly washed thy snowy feet or laid 
Upon thy blissful bed the purple vest. 
Ah, vain appeal ! upon the winds conveyed, 
The heedless winds, that hear not my behest : 
No words his ear can reach or penetrate his breast ! 

The writers of the Augustan age and their successors 
paid Catullus what they considered the highest compli- 



234 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ment, when they called him learned. Criticism referred 
everything to the Greek standard. The qualities which 
they recognised by this epithet were those which they 
deemed most valuable — more so even than originality and 
invention — an extensive acquaintance with the materials 
of Greek story, an elaborate study of the poets taken 
as models, a scientific appreciation of the cadences and 
harmonies of Greek versification. They were grateful 
for the blessings which they were conscious of having 
derived from mental cultivation ; and the highest praise 
which they could bestow was to confer upon a poet the 
title of a learned and accomplished man. 

This period, at which prose reached its zenith, could 
boast of other poets, also, besides Lucretius and Catullus, 
whose merits were considerable although they did not 
satisfy the fastidious taste of the Augustan age. There 
flourished C. Licinius Calvus, 1 C. Helvius Cinna, Yalerius 
Cato, Yalgius, Ticida, Furius Bibaculus, and Yarro 
Atacinus. 

The first of these was a lively little man, 2 an orator as 
well as a poet. His speeches were elaborately modelled 
after those of the Attic orators ; and had his poems dis- 
played the same polish, they might have satisfied Horace 3 
and his contemporaries, and thus have been preserved. 
As it is, the fragments which remain are so brief, that it 
is impossible to say whether his merits were such as to 
justify Niebuhr in placing him amongst the three greatest 
poets of his age. His poetry resembled that of Catullus 
in spirit and morality. It was the fashionable poetry of 
the day, and consisted of tender elegy, playful and senti- 
mental epigram, licentious love-songs, and bitter per- 
sonality. 

Cinna, 4 besides smaller poems, was the author of an 



1 Cic. Brut. 82 ; ad Fam. xv. 21 ; Dial, de Or. 18 ; Quint, xi. 115. 
2 Cat. liv. 3 Sat. 1. x. 16. 4 Cat. Carrn. X. xcv. 



OTHER POETS OF THIS PERIOD. 235 

epic, entitled Smyrna; the subject is unknown: but 
Catullus, who was his intimate friend, praises it highly, 
and Virgil modestly declares that, as compared with 
Varius and Cinna, he himself appears a goose amongst 
swans. 1 Valerius Cato was a grammarian as well as a 
poet. His two principal poems were entitled Lydia and 
Diana ; 2 and a fragmentary poem, to which the title Dirce 
or Curses 3 has been given, has been generally attributed 
to liim on the grounds that the author pours forth his 
woes to a mistress named Lydia. The argument of the 
piece is as follows : — The estate of Cato, like that of Virgil, 
was confiscated and made a military colony ; and smarting 
under a sense of wrong, he imprecates curses on his lost 
home. Then the theme changes : his heart softens ; and 
in sad accents he bewails his separation from his mis- 
tress, and from all his rural pleasures. This poem was 
formerly believed to be the work of Virgil, but neither 
the language nor the poetry can be compared to those of 
the Mantuan bard ; nor do the sentiments resemble the 
calmness and resignation with which he bears his mis- 
fortunes. J. Scaliger, impressed with these considera- 
tions, transferred the authorship from Virgil to Cato. 
But there are no sufficient grounds for determining the 
question. 

Respecting C. Valgius Rufus all is doubt and ob- 
scurity. The grammarians quote from him ; Pliny 4 
speaks of his learning; Horace 5 refers to him as an 
elegiac poet, and expresses the greatest confidence in his 
critical taste and judgment. Ticida is mentioned by 
Suetonius as bearing testimony to the merits of Valerius 
Cato. Bibaculus was a bitter satirist, who spared not the 
feelings of his friend Cato when reduced from affluence 
to poverty ; 6 who himself had the vanity to attempt an 



1 Eel. 9. 2 Suet, de 111. Gram. 2—9. 3 Wemsdorf, Po. Lat. Mi. 

4 H. N. xxv. 2. 5 Od. ii. 9 ; Sat. I. x. 6 Wemsdorf. 



236 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

epic poem, and by his vulgar taste provoked the severe 
criticism of Horace. 1 

P. Terentius Varro Atacinus was a contemporary of 
Varro Eeatinns ; and for this reason his works have often 
been confounded with those of the latter. He was born 
b.c. 82, 2 near the river Atax in Gaul, and hence he was 
surnamed Atacinus, in order to distinguish him from his 
learned namesake, who derived his appellation from pro- 
perty which he possessed at Eeati. Very few fragments 
of his works are extant, 3 although his poetry was of such 
a character that Virgil deemed some of his lines worthy 
of plagiarizing. 4 His principal work, which is not spoken 
of in very high terms by Quintilian, 5 is a translation of 
the Argonautica of Apollonius Ehodius. Besides this, 
he wrote two geographical poems, namely, the C/iorographia 
and Libri Navales, a heroic poem entitled Bellum Sequa- 
nicum, on one of the Gallic campaigns of J. Csesar, and 
also some elegies, epigrams, and saturse. 6 

A fragment of the Chorographia is preserved by Meyer, 7 
the concluding lines of which were evidently imitated by 
Virgil, and also the following severe epigram on Li- 
cinius : — 

Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet, at Cato nullo, 

Pompeius parvo ; Quis putet esse Deos ? 
Saxa premunt Licinum, levat altum fama Catonem, 

Pompeium tituli. Credimus esse Deos. 



1 Sat. II. v. 41. 2 Hieron. in Euseb. Chron. 

3 See Meyer's Anthol. Lat. 4 Ibid. 77, 78. 

5 Lib. x. i. 87. 6 Hor. Sat. I. x. 46. 7 Anthol. 77, 78. 



t 237 ) 



CHAPTER III. 

AGE OF VIRGIL FAVOURABLE TO POETRY — HIS BIRTH, EDUCATION, 
HABITS, ILLNESS, AND DEATH— HIS POPULARITY AND CHARACTER 
— HIS MINOR POEMS, THE CULEX CIRIS MORETUM COPA AND 
CATALECTA-— HIS BUCOLICS — ITALIAN MANNERS NOT SUITED TO 
PASTORAL POETRY — IDYLLS OF THEOCRITUS — CLASSIFICATION OF 
THE BUCOLICS — SUBJECT OF THE POLLIO — HEYNE'S THEORY 
RESPECTING IT. 

P. VlRGILIUS Maro (BORN B.C. 70). 

The period at which Virgil flourished was singularly 
favourable both to the development and appreciation of 
poetical talent of the most polished and cultivated kind 
The indulgent liberality of the imperial court cherished and 
fostered genius : the ruin of republican liberty left the 
intellect of the age without any other object except 
refinement ; imagination was not harassed by the cares 
and realities of life. The same causes contributed to 
limit the range of prose composition, 1 and therefore the 
field was left undisputed to Virgil and Horace and their 
friends ; and as the age of Cicero was essentially one in 
which prose literature flourished, so that of Augustus 
was the golden age of poetry. Of this age, Virgil stands 
forth pre-eminent amongst Iris contemporaries, as the 
representative. He exhibited all its characteristics, 
polish, ingenuity, and skill, and to these he superadded 
dignity and sublimity. The life of Virgil, commonly 
prefixed to his works, professes to be written by Tiberius 
Claudius Donatus, who lived in the fifth century. If, as 



1 See, on this subject, Niebuhr's Lectures on Roman History, cvi. 



238 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Heyne thought, the groundwork is by him, it has been 
overlaid with fables similar to those found in the Gesta 
Eomanorum, and owing their origin to the inventions of 
the dark ages. From this biography, stripped of those 
portions which are clearly fabulous, and from other sources, 
the following particulars respecting liim may be derived : — 
P. Virgilius Maro was born on the ides (the 15th) of 
October, 1 B.C. 70, on a small estate belonging to his 
father, at Andes (Pietola), a village of Cisalpine Gaul, 
situated about three Eoman miles from Mantua. It has 
been disputed whether his name was Virgilius or Vergilius. 
Most probably both orthographies are correct, as Diana ; 
Minerva, liber, and other Latin words, were frequently 
written JDeana, Menerva, leber, &c. 2 

Virgil was by birth a citizen of Mantua, 3 but not of 
Eome, for the full franchise was not extended to the 
Transpadani until b.c. 49, although they enjoyed the 
Jus Latii as early as B.C. 89. The varied stores of 
learning contained in the Georgics and iEneid, abundantly 
prove that Yirgil received a libera! education. It is said 
that he acquired the rudiments of literature at Cremona, 
where he remained until he had assumed the toga virilism 
This event, if the anonymous life is to be depended upon, 
took place unusually early ; for it is there assigned to the 
second consulships of Pompey the Great and Licinius 
Crassus, 5 in the first consulship of whom he was born. 
From Cremona he went to Milan, and thence to Naples, 
where he studied Greek literature and philosophy under 
the direction of Parthenius, a native of Bithynia. Muretus 
asserts that he diligently read the history of Thucydides ; 
but his favourite studies were medicine and mathematics — 
an unusual discipline to engage the attention of the future 
poet, but one which, by its exactness, tended to foster 



1 Mart. Ep. xii. 68. 2 See Quint, de Inst. Or. 3 Servius. 

4 Scalig. in Euseb. Cliron. 6 b. c. 55. 



VIRGIL DEPRIVED OF HIS ESTATE. 239 

and mature that judgment which distinguishes his poetry. 
The philosophical sect to winch he devoted himself was 
the Epicurean ; and the unfortunate general, P. Quin- 
tilius Varus, to whom he addresses his sixth Eclogue, 1 
studied this system together with him under Syron. 

After this, it is probable that he came to Eome, but 
soon exchanged the bustle of the capital, for which his 
bash t'ul disposition and delicate health unfitted him, for 
the quiet retirement of Iris hereditary estate. Of this he 
was deprived in B.C. 42, with circumstances of great 
hardship, when the whole neighbouring district was 
divided, after the battle of Philippi, amongst the victorious 
legionaries of Octavius and Antony. The town of 
Cremona had supported Brutus, and the old republican 
party, and Mantua, together with its surrounding district, 
suffered in consequence of its too close vicinity. 2 Asinius 
Pollio was at that time commander of the forces in 
Cisalpine Gaul. He was grinding and oppressive in his 
administration ; but being himself an orator, poet, and 
historian, he patronized literary men. Congenial tastes 
recommended Virgil to his notice, and led him to take com- 
passion on the poet's desolate condition. By his advice, 
Virgil proceeded to Borne with an introduction to 
Maecenas. Through him he gained access to Octavius, 
and either immediately or after the peace of Brundisium 3 
his little farm was restored to him. 

He now became a prosperous man, was a member of 
the literary society which graced the table of Maecenas, 
and basked in the sunshine of court favour. Horace, 
Virgil, Plotius, and Varius, were united by the closest 
bonds of friendship with Maecenas, and accompanied him 
on that cheerful expedition to Brundisium, 4 when he went 
thither in order to negotiate a reconciliation between 
Octavius and Antony. Henceforth Virgil's favourite 



See v. 7. 2 Eel. ix. 18. 3 b. c. 40. 4 b. c. 38. 



240 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

residence was Naples. 1 Its sunny climate suited his 
pulmonary weakness far better than the low and damp 
banks of his native Mincius (Menzo). He had, besides, 
a villa in Sicily, and when at Eome he lived in a pleasant 
house on the Esquiline, situated near those of his friends 
Maecenas and Horace. It is difficult to say how Virgil 
became so rich : patrons were liberal in those days, and 
he doubtless owed a portion of his affluence to their 
munificence. The liberality of Maecenas is well-known ; 
and Martial attributes the prosperity of Virgil to the 
favour of "the Tuscan knight/' 2 Augustus also had 
great wealth at his disposal, and was profuse in the dis- 
tribution of it amongst his favourites. 

There is a passage in the Odes of Horace 3 which seems 
to hint that he engaged to a slight extent in mercantile 
concerns : even if this formed one source of his wealth, 
the love of gain (studium lucri), and anxiety about the 
means of living, do not appear to have hindered him from 
devoting his hours of serious occupation to literary 
labours and the diligent use of his well-stored library, 
whilst his leisure was given to the delights of social 
intercourse, for which he was so eminently qualified by 
his sweet temper and amiable disposition. 

The poet's term of life was not extended far beyond 
fifty years. He had never been healthy or robust : he 
sometimes spat blood, and frequently suffered from head- 
ache and indigestion. 4 Ill health was the only drawback 
to a life otherwise passed in calm felicity. In the year 
b. c. 19 he meditated a tour in Greece, intending, during 
the course of it, to give the final polish to his great epic 
poem. Greece and her classic scenes, the favourite haunts 
of the Muses, the time-honoured contests of Olympia, 
the living and breathing statues which he beheld in that 

1 Alexander, an Italian abbot, states, on the evidence of two spurious 
verses, that he was governor of Naples and Calabria. 

2 Ep. viii. 56. 3 Carm. xv. 12. 4 Hor. Sat. I. v. 49. 



DEATH OF VIRGIL. 241 

home of art, evidently inspired the beautiful imagery 
which adorns the introduction to the third Georgia He, 
however, only reached Athens : there he met Augustus, 
who was on his way back from Samos, and both returned 
together. On the occasion of this voyage, Horace wrote 
that tender ode 1 in which he affectionately calls him "the 
half of Ins soul : — " 

Navis quae tibi creditum 

Debes Virgilium, finibus Atticis 
Reddas incolumeni precor 

Et serves anirose diniidium rneae. 

On the way he was seized with a mortal sickness, which 
was aggravated by the motion of the vessel, and he only 
lived to land at Brundisium. The powers of nature, 
already enfeebled, were now totally exhausted, and he 
expired on the 22nd of September. He was buried 
rather more than a mile from Naples, on the road to 
Puteoli (Pozzuoli). A tomb is still pointed out to the 
traveller which is said to be that of the poet. Nor is 
this improbable ; for, although it is not situated on the 
present high-road, it is quite possible that the original 
direction of the road may have been changed. 2 His 
epitaph is said to have been dictated by himself in his last 
moments : — 

Mantua me genuit ; Calabri rapuere ; tenet nunc 
Parthenope. Cecini Pascua, Rura, Duces. 3 

Virgil was deservedly popular both as a poet and as a 
man. His rivals in literature could not envy one so 
unassuming and inoffensive his well-merited success, but 
loved him as much as they admired his poetry. The 



1 Carm. i. 3. 

2 There has been much discussion respecting the precise place of bis 
burial. (See Cramer's Anc. It. ii. 174.) Addison, in opposition to the 
popular belief, thought it almost certain that it stood on that side of the 
town which looks towards Vesuvius. (Remarks on Italy, p. 164 ; sec. ed.) 

3 Meyer, Anthol. 95. 

R 



242 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

emperor esteemed him, the people respected him. " Wit- 
ness," says Tacitus, 1 " the letters of Augustus, — witness 
the conduct of the people itself, which, when some of his 
verses were recited in the theatre, rose en masse, and 
showed the same veneration for Virgil, who happened to 
he present among the audience, which they were wont to 
show to Augustus." He was exceedingly temperate in 
his manner of living ; so pure-minded 2 and chaste in the 
midst of a profligate and licentious age, that the Neapo- 
litans gave him the name of Parthenias (from 7rap6evos, 
a virgin), unselfish, although surrounded by selfishness, 
kind-hearted, and sympathising. His talents and popu- 
larity never spoiled his natural simplicity and modesty, 
as his moving in the polite circles of the capital never 
could entirely wear off his rustic shyness and unfashionable 
appearance. 

He was constitutionally pensive and melancholy, and 
so distrustful of his own poems, that Augustus could not 
persuade him to send an unfinished portion of the iEneid 
to him for perusal. "As to my iEneas," he writes to 
the emperor, 3 when absent on his Cantabrian campaign, 
" if I had anything worth your reading I would send it 
with pleasure, but the work is only just begun, and I 
even blame my folly for venturing upon so vast a task. 
But you know that I shall apply fresh and increased 
diligence to carrying out my design." It was with real 
reluctance that he subsequently read the sixth book to 
the Emperor and Octavia. In his last moments he was 
anxious to burn the whole manuscript ; and in his will he 
directed his executors, Yarius and Tucca, either to improve 
it or commit it to the flames. 4 He was open-hearted and 
generous, but not extravagant in the expenditure of his 
wealth, for he bequeathed to his brother, his friends, and 
the Emperor a considerable property. 

1 Dial, de Caus. Corrup. El. 13. 2 Hor. Sat. I. v. 41. 

3 Macrob. Saturn. I. sub fine. 4 Plin. N. H. vii. 30. 



HIS MINOR POEMS. 243 

It is said that Virgil's earliest poetical essay was an 
epic poem, the subject of which was the Boman wars ; 
but that the impossibility of introducing Eoman names 
in hexameter verse caused him to desist from the task 
almost as soon as he had commenced it. The minor 
poems, which are still extant, were probably his first 
works. These are the Culex, Ciris, Moretum, Copa, 
and the shorter pieces in lyric, elegiac, and iambic 
metres, 1 commonly known by the title of Catalecta, The 
" Culex" (Gnat) is a bucolic poem, with sometliing of 
a mock-heroic colouring, of which the argument is as 
follows : 2 — A shepherd, overcome with the heat, falls 
asleep beneath the shade of a tree, and a venomous 
serpent from a neighbouring marsh stealthily approaches. 
A gnat flies to his rescue, and stings him on the brow. 
The shepherd, awoke by the smart, crushes his rescuer, 
but sees the serpent and kills it. The ghost of the gnat 
appears, reproaches him wdth his ingratitude, and de- 
scribes the adventures he has met with in the regions 
of the dead. The shepherd erects a monument in his 
honour, and indites the following epigram : — 

Parve culex, pecudum custos tibi tale merenti 
Funeris officium vitas pro munere reddit. 

Poor insect, thou a shepherd's life didst save ; 
Thou gavest a life, he gives thee but a grave. 

The " Ciris," which some have attributed to Corn. 
Gallus, is the Greek legend of Scylla, who was changed 
into a fish, and her father Nisus into an eagle. Great 



1 See Meyer's Anthol. 85 — 111. 
2 A litle noursling of the humid ayre, 



A gnat unto the sleepie shepheard went ; 

And, marking where his ey-lids twinckling rare 

Shewd the two pearles, which sight unto him lent, 

Through their thin coverings appearing fayre, 

His litle needle there infixing deep, 

Warnd him awake, from death himselfe to keep. 

Spenser. 

r2 



244 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

use has been made by Spenser of this poem in the con- 
versation between Britomart and her nurse Glauce, and 
also in Glauce's incantations. 1 The " Moretum" was 
intended to trace the employments of the agricultural 
labourer through the day ; but it only describes the com- 
mencement of them, and the preparation of a dish or olla 
podrida of garden herbs called moretum. It contains an 
ingenious description of a cottager's kitchen garden. The 
" Copa" is an Elegiac poem, not unlike in jovial spirit 
the scolia or drinking-songs of the Greeks : it represents 
a female waiter at a tavern, begging for custom by a 
tempting display of the accommodations and comforts 
prepared for strangers. It describes the careless enjoy- 
ments of rural festivity : the simple luxuries of grapes 
and mulberries, the fragrant roses, the cheerful grass- 
hoppers, and timid little lizards of Italy. Nor are the 
excitements of the dice, the joys of wine, the blandish- 
ments of love unsung. Dull care is banished far, and the 
enjoyment of the present hour inculcated : — 

Pereant qui crastina curant 
Mors aurem vellens Vivite, ait, venio. 

Amongst the lyric poems of Virgil is a very elegant 
one on the villa of his instructor in philosophy, Syron. 

The poems which first established his reputation were 
his Bucolics or Eclogues. This latter title was given them 
in later times, implying either that they were selections 
from a greater number of poems or imitations of passages 
selected from the works of Greek poets. 2 

The characters in Virgil's Bucolics are Italians, in all 
their sentiments and feelings, acting the unreal and 
assumed part of Sicilian shepherds. In fact, the Italians 



1 Faery Queene, book iii. c. ii. 3. See Dunlop, iii. 

2 Spenser, adopting the incorrect orthography and etymology of Pe- 
trarch, writes the word iEglogue, and derives it from a'iytov Ao'yoi — tales of 
goats or goatherds. 



ITALIAN RURAL MANNERS. 245 

never possessed the elements of pastoral life, and there- 
lore could not naturally furnish the poet with originals 
and models from which to draw his portraits and cha- 
racters. They were a simple people, but their simplicity 
was rather Ascrsean than Arcadian : the domestic habits 
and virtues of rural life in Italy were not unlike those of 
Bceotia, as described by Hesiod. Virgil, therefore, wisely 
took him as his model, and produced a more natural 
picture of Italian manners in his Georgics than in his 
Eclogues. The denizens of the little towns had the 
manners and habits of municipal life : their cultivation was 
the artificial refinement of town life, and not the natural 
sentiments of the contemplative shepherd. Those who 
lived in the country were hard-working, simple-minded 
peasants, who gained their livelihood by the sweat of 
their brow — honest, plain-spoken, rough-mannered, and 
without a grain of sentimentality. Pastoral poetry 
owes its origin to, and is fostered by, solitude ■ its most 
beautiful passages are of a meditative cast. The shepherd 
beguiles his loneliness by communing with Ins own 
thoughts. His sorrows are not the hard struggles of 
life, but often self-created and imaginary, or at least 
exaggerated. When represented as Virgil represents 
them in his Bucolics, they are in masquerade, and the 
drama in which they form the characters is of an alle- 
gorical kind. The connexion with Italy is rather of an 
historical than a moral nature : we meet with numerous 
allusions to contemporary events, but not with exact 
descriptions of Italian character and manners. As, there- 
fore, we cannot realize the descriptions we can neither 
sympathize nor admire. Menalcas and Cory don and 
Alexis, and the rest, are as much out of place as the 
gentlemen and ladies in the garb of shepherds and 
shepherdesses in English family pictures. Even the 
scenery is Sicilian, and does not truthfully describe the 
tame neighbourhood of Mantua. So long as it is re- 



246 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

membered that they are imitations of the Syracusan poet 
we miss their nationality, and see at once that they are 
"iintrnthful and out of keeping ; and Virgil suffers in our 
estimation because we naturally compare him with the 
original whom he professes to imitate, and we cannot but 
be aware of his inferiority : but if we can once divest 
ourselves of the idea of the outward form which he has 
chosen to adopt, and forget the personality of the cha- 
racters, we can feel for the wretched outcast exiled from 
a happy though humble home, and be touched by the 
simple narrative of their disappointed loves and childlike 
woes \ can appreciate the delicately-veiled compliments 
paid by the poet to his patron ; can enjoy the inventive 
genius and poetical power which they display ; and can 
be elevated by the exalted sentiments which they some- 
times breathe. We feel that it is all an illusion ; but we 
willingly permit ourselves to be transported from the 
matter-of-fact realities of a hard and prosaic world. 

Virgil in his Eclogues was too much cramped by fol- 
lowing his Greek original to present us with true pictures 
of Italian country life ; although the criticism of his 
friend Horace with justice attributes to his rural pieces 
delicacy of touch and graceful wit : — 

molle atque facetum 
Virgilio annuerunt gaudentes rare Camoense. 

The Idylls of Theocritus are transfusions into appro- 
priate Greek of old popular Sicilian legends which had 
taken root in the country, and had become part and 
parcel of the national character. His subjects are not 
always strictly pastoral, for his characters are sometimes 
reapers and fishermen. 2 His language, characters, sen- 
timents, scenery, habits, incidents, are all Sicilian, and 
therefore all are in perfect harmony. The characters of 



Sat. I. x. 44. - Id. x. and xxi. 



( I.ASSIFICATION OF THE BUCOLICS. '247 

Theocritus have a specific individuality, and are therefore 
different from each other; those of Virgil are generic, 
the representatives of a class, and therefore there is little 
or no variety. But still Virgil's defects do not detract 
much from the enjoyment experienced in reading his 
Bucolic poetry. The Aminta of Tasso, the Pastor Fido 
of Guarini, the Calendar of Spenser, the Lycidas of 
Milton, the Perdita of Shakspeare, the pastorals oi 
Drayton, Drummond, and Florian, are equally open to 
objection, and yet who does not admire their beauties? 

The Bucolics may be arranged in two classes. Those 
in the first are composed entirely after the Greek model, 
and contain the following poems : — 

i. The first, in which the poet, representing himself 
under the character of Tityrus, expresses his gratitude for 
the restoration of his property, whilst Melibceus, as an 
exiled Mantuan, bewails his harder fortune. 

ii. The second, which is generally supposed to have 
been the first pastoral written by him, and is principally 
copied from the Cyclops of Theocritus. 

iii. The third is an imitation of the fourth and fifth 
Idylls of Theocritus, and, as well as the seventh, repre- 
sent improvisatorial trials of musical skill between shep- 
herds. 

v. The fifth, in which two shepherds pay the last 
honours to a departed friend, the one singing his epitaph, 
the other his apotheosis. Scaliger 1 has with good reason 
supposed that this poem allegorized the murder and 
deification of Julius Csesar. It has been often imitated 
by modern poets : the most beautiful imitations are 
Spenser's Lament for Dido, Milton's Lycidas, Drayton's 
sixth Eclogue, and Pomfret's Elegy on Queen Mary. 

viii. The eighth, which is imitated from the second 
and third Idylls of Theocritus, consists of two parts ; and, 



In Euseb. Chrou. 



248 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

from the subject-matter of the second portion, is entitled 
" Pharmaeeutria" (the Enchantress). Two shepherds, 
Damon and Alphesibceus, rival Orpheus in their musical 
skill, for, whilst they sing, heifers forget to graze, lynxes 
are stupified, and rivers stop their course to listen. It 
was addressed by Virgil to his kind patron Pollio, whilst 
employed in his expedition to Ulyricum. 1 Damon, per- 
sonifying an unsuccessful lover, laments that a rival has 
been preferred to himself. Alphesibceus, in the character 
of an enchantress, goes through a formula of magical in- 
cantations in order to regain the lost affections of Daphnis. 
In this poem a refrain, or intercalary verse, recurs after 
intervals of a few hues. In the song of Damon, the 
refrain is — 

Incipe Meenalios mecum, rnea tibia, versus. 
In that of his opponent — 

Ducite ab urbe dornum, mea carmina, ducite Daptmim. 

ix. In the ninth, two shepherds converse together on 
the troubles which have befallen their neighbourhood, 
and one of them is represented as conveying a present of 
a few kids to court the favour of the new possessor. 

The second class are of a more original kind. 

iv. The fourth, entitled Pollio, which is the most 
celebrated of them all, bears no resemblance to pastoral 
poetry. In the exordium, the poet invokes the Muses of 
Sicilian song ; but he professes to attune their sylvan strain 
to a nobler theme. The melancholy Perusian war had 
been brought to a termination. The reconciliation of 
Anthony and Octavius had been effected by the treaty of 
Brundisium, and all things seemed to promise peace and 
prosperity. The contrast was indeed a bright one, after 
the havoc and desolation which war had spread through 
Italy. The peace ratified with Sextus Pompey at Puteoli 



1 b. c. 39. 



SUBJECT OF THE FOURTH ECLOGUE. 249 

opened the long-closed granaries of Sicily, and plenty 
succeeded to famine. The enthusiasm of the poet hailed 
the return of the fahled golden age — the reign of Saturn. 
The songs which the old bards of Italy professed to have 
learnt from the Cumaean Sibyl, and to winch legendary 
tradition attributed a prophetical meaning, seemed to 
point to the new era which now dawned on the Eoman 
empire. 

The belief of the civilized world was undoubtedly at 
this time concentrated on the expectation of some great 
event, which should bring peace and happiness to man- 
kind. The divine revelation which God's people enjoyed 
taught them now to expect the advent of the Messiah ; 
wliilst traditions, probably derived through corrupting 
channels from the true light of prophecy, taught the 
heathen, though more vaguely, to look for the coming of 
some great one. The prophetic literature of the East 
might have travelled to Europe ; and the divine pro- 
phecies of Isaiah, and the other sacred writers, may have 
been incorporated by native bards in Italian legends. 

Bishop Lowth even supposed that the Sibylline pre- 
dictions derived their origin from a Greek version of 
Messianic prophecies. 1 A belief in the inspiration of the 
Sibyls prevailed in the early ages of Christianity, and the 
Emperor Constantine in one of Iris nations 2 quotes from 
them, and paraphrases Virgil's^re pei ° a s &n evidence 
to the truths of the Gospel. ■• nam n 

Some of the fathers of the Chuiv gani ittributed to them 
supernatural power ; and the Italian painters, acting under 
the patronage of the Eoman Church, honoured the four 
Sibyls as participators in a knowledge of the Divine 
counsels. Ambrose 3 allows that they were inspired, but 
by the spirit of evil. Jerome 4 believes that this power 



1 Prsel. de Sacr. Po. He. xxi. p. 289. 
- Orat. ad Sanctos, 19, 20 ; apud Euseb. 
3 In I Cor. ii. * Adv. Jor. lib. i. 



250 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

was given to them by God as a reward for virginity ; and 
Augustine 1 thinks that they predicted many truths con- 
cerning Jesus Christ. Justin 2 adopts a legend which 
would account for the similarity between the Sibylline 
oracles and Hebrew prophecy. He says that the Cumsean 
Sibyl, celebrated by Virgil, was born at Babylon, and 
was the daughter of Berosus, the Chaldean historian. 

If Yirgil, in the fourth eclogue, correctly paraphrased 
the Sibylline poems, two parallelisms between them and 
the prophecies of Isaiah are remarkably striking : — 3 

Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna ; 
Jam nova progenies coelo demittitur alto — 
Te duce, si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri, 
Irrita perpetua solvent formidine terras — 
Pacatumque reget patriis virtutibus orbem. — v. 6. 

Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son. — Is. vii. 14. 

Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, 
upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to 
establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even 
for ever. — Is. ix. 7. 

At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu, 
Errantes hederas passim cum baccare tellus, 
Mixtaque ridenti colocasia fundet acantho. — v. 18. 

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them ; and 
the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as a rose. — Is. xxxv. 1. 

Many theori^V^j? been proposed respecting the child 

to whom aF polli y ade in this eclogue, not one of 

which was ss p Gibbon ; 4 but the following is 

3 pro ° 

adopted by 1. % i V the most probable. The peace 

of Brundisium wao cemented by the marriage between 

Antony and Caesar's half-sister Octavia. She was the 

widow of Marcellus, and appeared likely to give birth 

to a posthumous child. To this child yet unborn, the 

poet applies all the blessings promised by the Sibyl- 



1 Contra Faust, i. 13, 2. 2 Orat. Parsen. 3 See notes to Pope's Messiah. 
4 Decl. and Fall. c. xx. vol. iii. p. 269. 



IMITATION BY MILTON. 251 

line oracles, and predicts that, under his auspices, the 
peace and prosperity already inaugurated shall be con- 
tinned. 

Yi. In the sixth, Virgil represents allegorically, under 
the character of Silenus the tutor of Bacchus, his own 
instructor Syron ; and thus makes it the vehicle of a short 
account of the Epicurean philosophy. It was not long 
since the same subject had been treated of at greater 
length by the eloquent Lucretius ; and it is said that 
when Cicero heard it recited by the mime Cytheris, 
he was so struck with admiration as to exclaim that he 
was "Magnse spes altera Eomae." This eclogue is parodied 
by Gay in the Saturday of his Shepherd's Week. 

x. The tenth can scarcely be distinguished from any 
other amatory poem, except that the heroic metre is not 
so usual in that species of poetry as the elegiac. The 
loves of the poet Grallus are sung ; Arcadia is fixed upon 
as the place of his exile ; and the lay is said to be set to 
the music of the oaten-pipe of Sicily : but this eclogue 
has no other claim to be entitled a bucolic poem. 

One passage in this eclogue, which suggested the follow- 
ing beautiful lines in Milton's " Lycidas," illustrates the 
truth that poetry often derives additional beauty from 
the fact of its being a successful imitation : — 

Quae nemora aut qui vos saltus habuere, puellae 
Naiades, indigno cum Gallus amore periret ? 
Nam neque Parnassi vobis juga nam neque Pindi 
Ulla moram fecere, neque Aonia Aganippe. Eel. x. 9. 

Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep 

Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas ? 

For neither were ye playing on the steep, 

Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie, 

Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high, 

Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream. 

Milton's Lycidas. 



252 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER IV. 

BEAUTY OF DIDACTIC POETRY — ELABORATE FINISH OF THE GEORGICS 
— ROMAN LOVE OF RURAL PURSUITS — HESIOD SUITABLE AS A 
MODEL — CONDITION OF ITALY — SUBJECTS TREATED OF IN THE 
GEORGICS — SOME STRIKING PASSAGES ENUMERATED — INFLUENCE 
OF ROMAN LITERATURE ON ENGLISH POETRY — SOURCES FROM 
WHICH THE INCIDENTS OF THE ^NEID ARE DERIVED — CHARACTER 
OF jENE AS— CRITICISM OF NIEBUHR. 

Didactic poetry is of all kinds the least inviting. As its 
professed object is instruction, there is no reason why 
its lessons should be conveyed in poetical language — its 
purpose could, in fact, be better attained in prose. Pre- 
tending, therefore, to poetry, it demands great skill, 
elaborate finish, and such graces and embellishments as 
will conceal its dry character, and recommend it to the 
reader's attention. 

The beauty of a didactic poem depends only partially 
on the just views and correct discrimination which it 
evinces, and principally on the beauty of the language, 
the picturesque force, and pleasing character of the de- 
scriptions, and the interest that is thrown into the epi- 
sodes. In fact, the accessaries are the parts most admired, 
and extracts brought forward as specimens of this kind 
of poetry are invariably of this kind. Poetry naturally 
deals with the beauties and terrors of external nature — 
with the emotions and passions, whether of a tender or 
violent kind — the sober practical rules of life are scarcely 
within its sphere. True it is that when all literature was 
poetical, the precepts of moral and physical philosophy, 



ELABORATE FINISH OF TILE GEORGICS. 253 

and even the dry commands of laws and institutions, were 
embodied in a metrical form; but wlien literature 
divides itself into poetry and prose, the subjects ap- 
propriated to each become spontaneously separate like- 
wise. For this reason, the Greorgics of Virgil especially 
display his ability as a poet, his correct taste, the "limse 
labor," the pains which he took in polishing and correct- 
ing. In none of his poems can we form a better idea of 
the description which he gives of his patient toil, when 
he says, that " like the she-bear he brought his poetical 
offspring into shape by constantly licking them/' 1 The 
majesty of the language elevates the subject, and divests 
it of so much of the homeliness as would be inappropriate 
to poetry, and yet at the same time it is not too grand 
or elevated. 

The following criticism of Addison 2 is by no means 
too favourable : — " I shall conclude this poem to be the 
most complete, elaborate, and finished piece of all an- 
tiquity. The iEneis is of a nobler kind ; but the Greorgic 
is more perfect in its kind. The iEneis has a greater 
variety of beauties in it ; but those of the Georgic are 
more exquisite. In short, the Greorgic has all the per- 
fection that can be expected in a poem written by the 
greatest poet, in the flower of his age, when his invention 
was ready, his imagination warm, his judgment settled, 
and all his faculties in their full vigour and maturity/ ' 

Eome offered a favourable field for a poet to undertake a 
poem on the labours and enjoyments of rural life. Agricul- 
ture was always there considered a liberal employment : 
tradition had adorned rustic manners with the attributes of 
simplicity and honesty, and divested them of the ideas of 
coarseness usually connected with them. The traditions 
of those ages of national freedom and greatness, to which 
the enthusiasm of the poet delighted to carry back the 



A. Gell. N. A. xvii. 10. 2 Misc. Works, vol. i. 



254 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

thoughts of his readers, had connected some of the noblest 
names of history with rural labours. Curius and Cin- 
cinnatus were called from the plough to defend and save 
their country ; and after their task was performed they 
returned with delight to it again. Cato, the representative 
of the old and respected generation, and other illustrious 
men, had written on the pursuits and duties of rural life. 
Agriculture was never connected with ideas of debasing 
and illiberal gain, such as attached to trade and commerce. 
The poet, moreover, had a model ready at hand, after 
which to construct his work. It was Greek, and there- 
fore sure to be acceptable upon the recognized principles 
of taste. It described a species of rural life, hard, frugal, 
and industrious, very much like that led by the agricul- 
turists of Italy. It painted a standard of morals, which 
even the licentious inhabitants of a luxurious capital could 
appreciate, though they had degenerated from it. The 
discriminating judgment of Virgil saw that the rural life 
of Italy could really be represented, in the same way in 
which Hesiod had painted that of Bceotia, and he wisely 
determined — 

To sing through Roman towns Ascrsean strains. 

There exists, however, precisely that difference between 
the Greorgics of Virgil and their model that might be ex- 
pected. The Hesiodic poem belongs to a period when 
poetry was the accidental form — instruction the essential 
object; and, therefore, the teaching is systematic, precise, 
detailed, homely, sometimes coarse and unpolished. Virgil 
looks at his subject from the poetical point of view. His 
precepts are often put, not in a didactic but a descriptive 
form ; they are unhesitatingly interrupted by digressions 
and episodes, more or less to the point ; and out of a vast 
mass of materials such only are selected as are suitable to 
awaken the sensibilities. 

The state of Italy also contributed to enlist a poet's 



CONDITION OF ITALY. 255 

sympathies in favour of the rural classes, and to devote 
his pen to the patriotic task of reviving the old agricul- 
tural tastes. War had devastated the land ; the peasant 
population had been fearfully thinned by military con- 
scriptions and confiscation ; wide districts had been de- 
populated and left destitute of cultivation. Instead of 
the sword being beat into a ploughshare and the spear 
into a priming-hook, the Italian peasant had witnessed 
the contrary state of things. The poet laments the sad 
change which now disfigured the fair face of Italy : — 

noil ullus aratro 
Dignus honos, squalent abcluctis arva eolonis, 
Et curvse rigidum falces conflantur in ensem. 

Geo. i. 507. 

The credit of having proposed this subject to Virgil is 
given to his patron Maecenas ; and to him, consequently, 
the Georgics are addressed : but the poet doubtless gladly 
adopted the suggestion. When and where it was com- 
menced is uncertain, but the finishing stroke was put to 
it at Naples 1 some time after the battle of Actium. 2 Al- 
though the " Works and Days " of Hesiod is professedly 
his pattern, still he derives his materials from other 
sources. Aratus supplies him with his signs of the 
weather, and the writers de Re Rustica with his prac- 
tical directions. His system is indeed perfectly Italian ; 
so much so, that many of his rules may be traced in 
modern Italian husbandry, just as the descriptions of 
implements in Hesiod are frequently found to agree with 
those in use in modern Greece. 

The first book treats of tillage, the second of orchards ; 
the subject of the third, which is the noblest and most 
spirited of them, is the care of horses and cattle ; and the 
fourth, which is the most pleasing and interesting, de- 
scribes the natural instincts as well as the management 
of bees. 

1 G. iv. 560—564. 2 G. ii. 171. 



256 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

But the great merit of the Georgics consists in their 
varied digressions, interesting episodes, and sublime 
bursts of descriptive vigour, which are interspersed 
throughout the poem. To quote any of them would be 
unnecessary, as Virgil and his translations are in every 
one's hands. It will be sufficient to enumerate some of 
the most striking. These are — 

i. The Origin of Agriculture, Gr. i. 125. 
ii. The Storm in Harvest, i. 316. 
in. The Signs of the Weather, i. 351. 
iv. The Prodigies at the Death of Julius Caesar, 

i. 466. 
v. The Battle of Pharsalia, i., 489. 
vi. The Panegyric on Italy, n., 136. 
vii. The Praises of a Country Life, n., 458. 
viii. The Horse and Chariot Eace, in., 103. 
ix. The Description of Winter in Scythia, in., 349. 
x. The Murrain of Cattle, in., 478. 
xi. The Battle of the Bees, iv., 67. 
xii. The Story of Aristseus, iv., 317. 
xiii. The Legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, iv., 453. 

Roman poetry was more generally understood and 
more diligently studied in the most polished days of 
English literature, than the yet scarcely discovered stores 
of Greek learning. Want of originality was not con- 
sidered a blemish in an age the taste of which, notwith- 
standing all its merits, was very artificial ; whilst the ex- 
quisite polish and elegance which constitute the charm of 
Latin poetry, recommended it both for admiration and 
imitation. Hence English poets have been deeply in- 
debted to the Romans for their most happy thoughts, and 
our native literature is largely imbued with a Virgilian 
and Horatian spirit. This circumstance adds an especial 
interest to a survey of Boman literature as the fountain 
from which welled forth so many of the streams that have 



THE jENEID. 257 

fertilized our poetry. The Georgics have been frequently 
taken as a model for imitation, and our descriptive poets 
have drawn largely * from this source. Warton 1 con- 
si do red Philips' " Cyder" the happiest imitation ; and 
M The Seasons" of our greatest descriptive poet, 
Thomson, is a thoroughly Virgilian poem. Many 
striking instances of Virgilian taste might he adduced, 
especially the thunderstorm in " Summer," and the 
praises of Great Britain, in " Autumn." 

From the letter already quoted as preserved by Ma- 
erobius, it is clear that the iEneid was commenced when 
Augustus was in Spain, 2 that it occupied the whole of 
Virgil's subsequent life, and was not sufficiently corrected 
to satisfy his own fastidious taste wdien he died. Au- 
gustus intrusted its publication to Varius and Tucca, 
wdth strict instructions to abstain from interpolation. 
They are said to have transposed the second and third 
books, and to have omitted twenty -two lines 3 as being 
contradictory to another passage respecting Helen in the 
sixth book. 4 Hence in many early manuscripts these 
verses are wanting. 

The idea and plan of the iEneid are derived from the 
Homeric poems. As the wrath of Achilles is the main- 
spring of all the events in the Iliad, so on the anger of 
the offended Juno the unity of the iEneid depends, and 
with it all the incidents are connected. Many of the 
most splendid passages, picturesque images, and forcible 
epithets are imitations or even translations from the 
Iliad and Odyssey. The war with Turnus ow r es its 
grandeur and its interest to the Iliad — the wanderings of 
^Eneas, their wild and romantic adventures to the Odyssey. 
Virgil's battles, though not to be compared in point of 
vigour with those of Homer, shine with a reflected light. 



1 See Dunlop, H. of R. L. iii. s. v. Virg. 2 b. c. 27. 

3 Mn. ii. 567—589. 4 Ibid. vi. 5 LI. 



258 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

His Necyia is a copy of that in the Odyssey. His 
similes are most of them suggested by those favourite 
embellishments of Homer. The shield of iEneas 1 is an 
imitation of that of Achilles. The storm and the speech 
of iEneas 2 are almost translations from the Odyssey. 3 

The thoughts thus borrowed from the great heroic 
poems of Greece, Yirgil interwove with that ingenuity 
which distinguishes the Augustan school by means of the 
double character in which he represented his hero. The 
narrative of his perils by sea and land were enriched by 
the marvellous incidents of the Odyssey ; his wars which 
occupy the latter books had their prototype in the Iliad. 
Greek tragedy, also, which depicted so frequently the 
subsequent fortunes of the Greek chieftains, 4 — the nu- 
merous translations which had employed the genius of 
Ennius, Attius, and Pacuvius — were a rich mine of poetic 
wealth. The second book, which is almost too crowded 
with a rapid succession of pathetic incidents, derived, its 
interesting details — the untimely fate of Astyanax, the 
loss of Creusa, the story of Sinon, the legend of the 
wooden horse, the death of the aged Priam, the subsequent 
fortunes of Helen — from two Cyclic poems, the Sack of 
Troy and the little Iliad of Arctinus. For the legend of 
Laocoon he was indebted to the Alexandrian poet, 
Euphorion. The class of Cyclic poems entitled the 
vootoI suggested much of the third book, especially the 
stories of Pyrrhus, Helenus, and Andromache. The 
fourth drew its fairy enchantments partly from Homer's 
Calypso, partly from the love adventures of Jason, 
Medea, and Hypsypile in the Argonautica of the Alex- 
andrian poet, Apollonius Phodius, which had been intro- 
duced to the Eomans by the translation of Varro. 

The sixth is suggested by the eleventh book of the 
Odyssey and the descent of Theseus in search of Pirithous 



Ma., viii. 626, 2 Ibid. i. 3 Book v. 4 Macrob. Saturn, v. 13, 



Vine II- [NDEBTED TO OLD LATIN POETS. 259 

in the Hesiodic poems. But notwithstanding the force 
and originality — the vivid word-painting which adorns this 
book — it is far inferior to the conceptions which Greek 
genius formed of the unseen world. In the iEneid the 
Legends of the world of spirits seem but vulgar marvels 
and popular illusions. Tartarus and Elysium are too 
palpable and material to be believed; their distinctness 
dispels the enchantment which they were intended to 
produce ; it is daylight instead of dim shadow. We 
miss the outlines, which seem gigantic from their dim and 
shadowy nature, the appalling grandeur to which no one 
since iEschylus ever attained, except the great Italian 
poet who has never since been equalled. 

To this rich store of Greek learning Italy contributed 
her native legends. The adventures of iEneas in Italy — 
the prophecy, of which the fulfilment was discovered by 
lulus — the pregnant white sow — the story of the Sibyl — 
the sylph-like Camilla — were native lays amalgamated 
with the Greek legend of Troy. Macrobius, 1 in three 
elaborate chapters, has shown that Virgil was deeply 
indebted to the old Latin poets. In the first he quotes 
more than seventy parallel turns of expression from 
Ennius, Pacuvius, Attius, Naevius, Lucilius, Lucretius, 
Catullus, and Varius, consisting of whole or half lines. 
In the second he enumerates twenty-six longer passages, 
which Virgil has imitated from the poems of Ennius, 
Attius, Lucretius, and Varius, amongst which are por- 
tions of "The Praises of Eural Life," and of "The 
Pestilence." 2 In the third he mentions a few (amongst 
them, for example, the well-known description of the 
horse 3 ) which were taken by Virgil from the old Roman 
poets, having been first adopted by them from the 
Homeric poems. The following passages are a few of 



1 Saturn, vi. 1, 2, 3. 

8 Compare De Nat. Rer. ii. 24 ; vi. 136, 1143— ] 224 ; with Georg. ii 461, 
4G7. &c. ; iii. 478, 505, 509, &c. 3 Iliad, Z. 506 ; Ma. xi. 492. 

s 2 



260 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

these examples, of what would in modern times be con- 
sidered plagiarisms, but which the ancients admitted 
without reluctance : — 

Qui ccelum versat stellis fulgentibus aptum. Ennius. 

Axem humero torquet stellis fulgentibus aptum. 

V. JEn. vi. 797. 

Est locus Hesperiam quam mortales perhibebant. 

Est locus Hesperiam Graii cognomine dicunt. 

Mn. i. 530. 
Unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem. 
Unus qui nobis cunctando restituis rem. JEn. vi. 846. 

Quod per amoenam urbem leni fluit agmine flumen. 

arva 

Inter opima virum leni fluit agmine Tybris. 

JEn. ii. 781. 

Hei mihi qualis erat quantum mutatus ab illo. 

Hei mihi qualis erat quantum mutatus ab illo. 

Mn.\\. 274. 

discordia tetra 

Belli ferratos postes portasque refregit. 

Belli ferratos rupit Saturnia postes. JEn. vi. 622. 

The variety of incidents, the consummate skill in the 
arrangement of them, the interest which pervades both 
the plot and the episodes, fully compensate for the want 
of originality — a defect of which none but learned readers 
would be aware. What sweeter specimens can be found 
of tender pathos than the legend of Camilla, and the 
episode of Nisus and Euryalus ? where is the turbulence 
of uncurbed passions united with womanly unselfish 
fondness, and queen-like generosity, painted with a more 
masterly hand than in the character of Dido ? Where, 
even in the Iliad, are characters better sustained and 
more happily contrasted than the weak Latinus, the 
soldier-like Turnus, the simple-minded Evander, the 
feminine and retiring Lavinia, the barbarian Mezentius, 
who to the savageness of a wild beast joined the natural 
instinct, which warmed with the strongest affection for 



CHARACTER OF /ENEAS. 261 

his son. The only character of which the conception is 
somewhat unsatisfactory is that of the hero himself: 
.Eneas, notwithstanding his many virtues, fails of com- 
manding the reader's sympathy or admiration. He is 
full of faith in the providence of God, submits himself 
with entire resignation to His divine will — is brave, 
patient, dutiful — but he is cold and heartless, and, if the 
expression is allowable, unchivalrous. In his war with 
Turnus, he is so decidedly in the wrong, and the cha- 
racter of his injured adversary shines with such lustre 
and is adorned with such gallantry, that one is inclined 
to transfer to him the interest and sympathy which 
ought to be felt for the hero alone. This is undoubtedly 
a fault, but it is counterbalanced by innumerable excel- 
lences. 

In personification, nothing is finer than Virgil's por- 
traiture of Fame, except perhaps Spenser's Despair. In 
description, the same genius which shone forth in the 
Georgics, embellishes the iEneid also ; and both the 
objects and the phenomena of nature are represented in 
language equally vivid and striking. 

Notwithstanding the question has been much dis- 
cussed, it is most probable that the opinion of Pope 
was correct respecting the political object of the iEneid. 
He affirmed that it was as much a party -piece as Dryden's 
Absalom and Achitophel ; that its primary object was ,t© 
increase the popularity of Augustus ; its secondary one 
to flatter the vanity of his countrymen by the splendour 
and antiquity of their origin. Augustus is evidently 
typified under the character of iEneas : both were cautious 
and wise in council, both were free from the perturbations 
of passion ; they were cold, unfeeling, and uninteresting. 
Their wisdom and their policy were calculating and 
worldly-minded. Augustus was conscious, as his last 



1 Spence's Anecdotes. 



262 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

words show, that he was acting a part ; and the contrast 
between the sentiments and condnct of iEneas, wherever 
the warm impulses of affection might be supposed to have 
sway, likewise create an impression of insincerity. The 
characteristic virtue which adorns the hero of the iEneid, 
as the epithet " Pius " so constantly applied to him 
implies, was filial piety ; and there was no virtue which 
Augustus more ostentatiously put forward than dutiful 
affection to Julius Caesar who had adopted him. 

Other characters which are grouped around the central 
figure are allegorical likewise — Cleopatra is boldly sketched 
as Dido, the passionate victim of unrequited love. Both 
displayed the noble, generous qualities, and at the same 
time the uncontrolled self-will of a woman, who neither 
had nor would acknowledge any master except the object 
of her affections : the fortunes of both were similar, for 
their brothers had become their bitterest enemies, and 
the fate of both alike was suicide. 

Turnus, whose character, as has been already stated, 
is far more chivalrous and attractive than that of iEneas, 
probably represented the popular Antony ; and as the 
latter violated the peace ratified at Brundisium and 
Tarentum, so the former is represented as treacherous to 
his engagements with iEneas. It has even been thought, 
and the view has been supported by many ingenious 
arguments, that lapis is a portrait of the physician of 
Augustus. 1 

Virgil is especially skilful in that species of imitation 

which consists in the appropriate choice of words, and the 

assimilation of the sound to the sense. A series of dac- 

tyles expresses the rapid speed of horses, and the still 

more rapid night of time : — - 

Quadrupedante putrem Sonitu quatit ungula campum. 

^En. viii. 591. 

Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus. Geo. iii. 284. 
1 See, on this subject, Dunlop's Hist, iii, 151. 



IMITATIONS OF SOUND. 263 

Dignity and majesty are represented by an unusual use 

o I' spondees : — 

quce Divum incedo regina. JEn. i. 50. 

penatibus et magnis Dis. JEn. viii. 679. 

Accelerated motion by a corresponding change ^of 

metre : — 

jarnjam lapsura cadentique 

Iinniinet assiinilis JEn. vi. 602. 

Effort -by a hiatus : — 

Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam. 

Abruptness, or the fall of a heavy body, by a mono- 
syllable : — 

Insequitur cumulo prseruptus aquae mons. JEn. i. 109. 
procumbit humi bos. 2En. v. 481. 

Many other examples might be adduced 1 of that which, 
if it were an artifice, would be a very pleasing one, but 
which rather proceeds from the natural impulses of a 
lively fancy and a delicately-attuned ear. 

Dunlop has well observed, that Virgil's descriptions 
are more like landscape-painting than any by his pre- 
decessors, whether Greek or Eoman, and that it is a 
remarkable fact that landscape-painting was first intro- 
duced in his time. Pliny, in his Natural History, 2 informs 
us that Ludius, who flourished in the life-time of 
Augustus, invented the most dehghtful style of painting, 
compositions introducing porticoes, gardens, groves, hills, 
fish-ponds, rivers, and other pleasing objects, enlivened 
by carriages, animals, and figures. Thus, perhaps, art 
inspired poetry. 

No one has ever attempted to disparage the reputation 
of Virgil as holding the highest rank amongst Eoman 
poets, except the Emperor Caligula, J. Markland, and the 



1 See Clarke's Homer, II. iii. 363, note. 2 H. N. xxxv. 10. 



264 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

great historian Mebuhr. The latter does not hesitate to 
say that the nourishing period of Eoman poetry ceased 
about the time of the deaths of Csesar and Cicero. 1 
Doubtless Eoman national poetry then ceased, and was 
succeeded by the new era of Greek taste ; but still the 
poems of the new school were equally majestic and 
pathetic, and, though less natural, owed to their Greek 
originals incomparably greater polish, grace, and sweet- 
ness. 

It is difficult to understand the low opinion which 
Mebuhr entertained of Virgil, and the superiority which 
he attributes to Catullus. He not only declares that he 
is opposed to the adoration with which the later Romans 
regarded him, but he denies his fertility of genius and 
inventive powers. Although he acknowledges that the 
iEneid contains many exquisite passages, he pronounces 
it a complete failure, an unhappy idea from beginning to 
end. It is evident that he looked at the iEneid with the 
eye of an historian, and that his objections to it were 
entirely of an historical character. 

"Wrapped up in Eoman nationality and Italian tradi- 
tions, he did not forgive Yirgil for adulterating this pure 
source of antiquarian information with Greek legends. 
He assumes, correctly enough, that an epic poem, in 
order to be successful, must be a living narrative of 
events known and interesting to the mass of a nation, and 
at the same time confesses that, whilst the ancient Italian 
traditions had already fallen into oblivion, Homer was at 
that time better known than ISTsevius. Surely, then, if 
Virgil had drawn from Italian sources exclusively, he 
would have omitted much that would have added interest 
to his poem in the opinion of his hearers, and would not 
have complied with the epic conditions which Niebuhr 
himself lays down. Besides, if the traditions of Nsevius 



Lect. cvi on R. H. 



CRITICISM OF NIEBUHR. 265 

wore Italian, were not many of the Greek and Italian 
traditions which form the framework of the iEneid iden- 
tical ? Xawius must have drawn largely from the Cyclic 
poems ; and Niebuhr allows that Virgil copied these parts 
of his poem from Nsevius. 1 He asserts his conviction 
that Virgil's shield of iEneas had its model in Nsevius, 
in whose poem yEneas or some other hero had a shield 
representing the wars of the giants ; and yet no one can 
doubt that the shield of Nsevius must have been suggested 
by the Homeric and Hesiodic poems. Servius also 
believed that Virgil borrowed from the poem of Nsevius 
the plan of the early books of the iEneid. 2 

Some of Virgil's minor poems are undoubtedly very 
beautiful ; 3 but it is absurd to say that even the greatest 
elegance in fugitive pieces of such a stamp can outshine 
the noble and sublime passages interwoven throughout 
the whole structure of the iEneid. The dispraise of 
Niebuhr is as exaggerated as the fulsome compliment 
paid by Propertius to the genius of his fellow-country- 
man : — 

Cedite, Eomani scriptores, cedite Graii, 
Nescio quid majus nascitur Iliade. 

Meg. ii. 27. 

1 Introd. Lect. iv. 2 Serv. ad iEn. i. 98 ; ii. 797 ; iii- 10. 

3 Meyer, Anthol. 85, 93, &c. 



266 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE LIBERTINI — ROMAN FEELINGS AS TO COMMERCE — BIRTH 
AND INFANCY OF HORACE — HIS EARLY EDUCATION AT ROME 
— HIS MILITARY CAREER — HE RETURNS TO ROME — IS INTRO- 
DUCED TO MAECENAS — COMMENCES THE SATIRES — M^CENAS 
GIVES HIM HIS SABINE FARM — HIS COUNTRY LIFE — THE 
EPODES — EPISTLES — CARMEN SECULARE — ILLNESS AND DEATH, 

Horatius Flaccus (born B. C. 65). 

Lyric poetry is the most subjective of all poetry, and the 
musician of the Eoman lyre 1 was the most subjective of 
all Latin poets : hence a complete sketch of his life and 
delineation of his character may be deduced from his 
works. They contain the elements of an autobiography ; 
and, whilst they constitute the most authentic source of 
information, convey the particulars in the most livery and 
engaging form. 

At the period of Horace's birth, the Libertini, or freed- 
men, were rapidly rising in wealth, and, therefore, in 
position. The Roman constitution excluded the senato- 
rial order from commercial pursuits, and would not even 
permit them to own vessels of any considerable burden, 
lest they should be made use of in trade. The old 
Eoman feeling was even more exclusive than the law. 
There were certain trades in which not only none who 
had any pretensions to the rank of a gentleman, but 
even no one who was free-born could engage without 
degradation. Cicero 2 considers that money-lending, ma- 



Od. IV. iii. 23. 2 De Off. i. 42. 



ROMAN FEELINGS AS TO COMMERCE. 267 

nutachires, retail trade, especially in delicacies which 
minister to the appetite, are all sordid and illiberal. He 
does not even allow that the professions of medicine 
and architecture are honourable, except to such as are of 
suitable rank. Agriculture is the only method of money- 
making which he pronounces to be without any doubt 
worthy of free-born men. 

Devoted to the duties of public life either as soldiers 
or citizens, the Eomans did not comprehend the dignity 
of labour. High-minded and unselfish as it may appear 
to think meanly of employments undertaken simply for 
the sake of profit and lucre, the political result of this 
pride was unmixed evil. Commerce was thus thrown 
into the hands of those whose fathers had been slaves, and 
who themselves inherited and possessed the usual vices of 
a slavish disposition. 

The middle classes were impoverished, and, as the un- 
avoidable consequence of a system in which social position 
depended upon property, were rapidly sinking into the 
lowest ranks of the population. Here then was a gap to 
be filled up — the question was by what means? Had 
Eoman feeling permitted the free-born citizen to devote 
his energies to labour and the creation of capital, he 
would have risen in the social scale, would have occupied 
the place left vacant, and would have brought with him 
those sentiments of chivalrous freedom which there can 
be no doubt distinguished Eome in earlier times, and ad- 
vanced her in the scale of nations. Thus the circulation 
would have been complete and healthy, and the national 
system would have received fresh life and vigour in its 
most important part. Instead of this, however, slaves 
and the sons of slaves rose to wealth : not such slaves as 
those who, well educated and occupying a high or, at 
least, a respectable position in the conquered Greek 
states, were appreciated by their conquerors, became their 
friends and intimates, because of their worth and intellec- 



268 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

tual acquirements, imbued their masters with their own 
refinement and taste, and were intrusted with the educa- 
tion of their children, but slaves who had formed the 
masses of degraded nations. These were driven in hordes 
to Rome. They swarmed in all the states of Italy and 
Sicily. Many of them were not deficient in ability and 
energy, and therefore they rose ; but they had little or no 
moral principle. Their children intermarried with the 
lower classes of the citizens ; their blood infected that of 
the higher European races which flowed in their veins ; and 
thus the masses of Eome became a mixed race, but not 
mixed for the better. The character changed ■ but it 
changed because the old race had perished, and a new 
race with new characteristics occupied its place. 

Under such circumstances, the Libertini became a 
powerful and important class, both socially and politically : 
they were the bankers, merchants, and tradesmen of 
Eome. 

Of this class, the father of Horace was one of the most 
respectable. His business was that of a coactor, or agent 
who collected the money from purchasers of goods at 
public auctions. He was a man of strict integrity, 
content with his position, and would not have thought 
himself disgraced if his son had followed his own 
calling. 1 He had made by his industry a small fortune, 
sufficient to purchase an estate near Venusia (Venosa), 
on the confines of Lucania and Apulia, but not sufficient 
to free him from the appellation of " a poor man." 2 

Here, on the 8th of December (vi t0 id. Decembr.), 
B.C. 65, Q. Horatius Flaccus was born; and on the banks 
of the obstreperous Aufidus, 3 the roar of whose waters 
could be heard far off, 4 Horace passed his infant years, 
and played and wandered in that picturesque neigh- 



Sat. I. vi. 86. 2 Ibid. I. vi. 71. 3 Ocl. III. xxx. 10. 

4 Ibid. IV. ix. 2. 



[NPANCT OF HORACE. 269 

bourhood. The natural beauties amidst which he was 
nursed, probably did much to form and foster his poetic 
tastes, lie himself relates, in one of his finest odes, 1 an 
adventure which befel him in his childhood, and which 
reminds the reader of the beautiful nursery ballad of the 
Children in the AVood : — 

Me fabulosce Vulture iu Appulo 
Altricis extra limcn Apulise 
Ludo fatigatumque somuo 
Froude nova puerum palumbes 

Texere (miruru quod foret omnibus, 
Quicunique celsce niduni AcherontiEe, 
Saltusque Bantinos, et arvum 
Pingue tenent humilis Ferenti), 

Ut tuto ab atris corpore viperis 
Dorniirem et ursis ; ut premerer sacra 
Lauroque collataque myrto 
Xon sine Dis aniniosus infans. 

Fatigued with sleep and youthful toil of play, 
When on a mountain's brow reclined I lay, 
Near to my natal soil, around my head 
The fabled woodland doves a verdant foliage spread ; 

Matter, be sure, of wonder most profound 
To all the gazing habitants around, 
Who d well in Acherontia's airy glades, 
Amid the Bantian woods, or low Ferentum's meads, 

By snakes of poison black and beasts of prey. 
That thus in dewy sleep unharmed I lay ; 
Laurels and myrtle were around me piled, 
Not without guardian gods, an animated child. 

Francis. 

He remained amongst his native mountains until his 
eleventh or twelfth year, when his father, wisely Avishing 
to secure for him the benefits of a liberal education, 
which the neighbouring village school of Mavius did not 
furnish, removed with him to Rome. 2 Thus he quitted 
Venusia for ever, of which place many passages in his 
works prove that he retained very vivid recollections. 3 

1 Od. III. iv. 9. 2 Sat. I. vi. 71. 

3 See ex. gr. Ep. II. 41 ; Od. III. vi. 37 .; Sat. II. ii. 112. 



270 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

At Borne lie was placed under the instruction of 
Orbilius Pupillus, a grammarian, who had been formerly 
in the army, and had migrated from Beneventum to the 
capital. He was celebrated as a schoolmaster, but still 
more for his severity, for he was commonly called the 
flogging Orbilius (Plagosus Orbilius). 1 With him, 
young Horace read in his own language the poems of 
Livius Andronicus and Ennius ; and in the Greek, the 
Iliad of Homer, whose divine poetry he soon learnt to 
enjoy. 2 

Whilst his father took this care of his intellectual 
education, he enabled him by dress and a retinue of slaves 
to associate on terms of equality with boys far above him 
in rank and station ; 3 and, what was still more important, 
lie kept him under his own roof, and thus secured for his 
son the benefits of home influences, sage and prudent 
advice, and the watchful care of the parental eye. 4 For his 
father's liberality, good example, and constant attention, 
Horace expresses the deepest gratitude, 5 and to him he 
acknowledges himself indebted for all the good points of 
his character. The practical nature of this indulgent 
and devoted father's instruction — how he delighted to 
teach by example rather than by precept — is simply told 
by Horace himself 6 in one of his satires. 

Before he arrived at man's estate, it is probable that 
he lost his wise adviser, for he never mentions his father 
except in comiexion with the years of his boyhood. 
Perhaps this is the reason why, in his earlier poetry, his 
genial freedom so often degenerated into licentiousness, 
and his love of pleasure tempted him to adopt the dis- 
solute manners of a corrupt age. His moral sense was 
accurate and just — he could see what was useful and ap- 
prove it ; he could censure the vices of his contemporaries — - 



: Ep, II. i. 70. 2 Ibid. ii. 41. 3 Sat. I. vi. 76„ 
4 Ibid. vi. 5 Ibid. vi. 6 Ibid. iv. 103. 



Ml UTAH V CAREER OF HORACE. 27 L 

but he had lost that wise counsel which had hitherto 
preserved him pure. 

Athens was at that period the University of Eome. 
Thither the Eoman youth resorted to learn language, 
art, science, and philosophy : — 

Inter sylvas Academi quserere verurn. 1 
To seek for truth in Academic groves. 

Horace commenced his residence there at a great 
political crisis, and the politics of Eome created a vivid 
interest in the young students at Athens. He had not 
lived there long, when Julius Caesar was assassinated ; and 
many of his fellow-students, as was natural to youthful 
and ardent minds, zealously embraced the republican 
party. Horace, now twenty-two years of age, joined the 
army of Brutus, and served under him until the battle of 
Philippi in the rank of a military tribune. 2 He must 
have already become distinguished, since nothing but 
merit could have recommended the son of a freedman to 
Brutus for so high a military command. But the event 
proved that he had sadly mistaken his vocation, for he 
was totally unfit for the position either of an officer or a 
soldier. 

With the rest of the vanquished he fled from the field 
of Philippi ; and in a beautiful and affectionate ode 3 
to Pompeius Yarus, he confesses that he even threw 
away his shield ; nor was he one of those who rallied, 
although his friend was carried back again into the 
bloody conflict by the tide of war. So at any rate he 
himself tells the story. It may have been, however, that 
his vanity prompted him to pretend a resemblance in 
this respect to his favourite Alcaaus, or perhaps, he wished 
to address a piece of courtly flattery to the conqueror. 
Varus was one of his earliest friends : together they had 
spent days of study and of festivity ; and when troublous 



1 Ep. TT. ii. 43. * Sat. T. vi. 8 Od. II. vii 



272 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

times had separated them, nothing can exceed the wild 
and tumultuous joy with which Horace looks forward to 
a reunion with his friend. 

On his return to Eome he found that his father was 
dead, and his patrimony confiscated. 1 In order to obtain 
a livelihood, he purchased a clerk's place under the 
quaestor. 2 For its duties he must have been totally unfit, 
for he hated business 3 and loved pleasure and literary 
ease. But on the income of this office, and the kindness 
of his friends, he lived a life of frugality and poverty. 4 
It is possible that even then he gained some profit from 
his poems, for he says, 5 " Audacious poverty drove me to 
write verses." Perhaps when he became more prosperous, 
he resigned his place, for he does not mention it in the 
account he gives to Maecenas of the usual daily avocations 
of his careless and sauntering life. 6 

Soon, however, his fortunes began to brighten. His 
talents recommended him, when about twenty -four years 
of age, to Yirgil and Yarius. 7 They were then the leading 
poets at Borne ; and Maecenas, the polished but somewhat 
effeminate friend of Augustus, was the powerful patron 
of genius and the head of literary society. These two 
poets were warmly attached to Horace, whose affection 
for them was equally strong, 8 and to them he owed his 
introduction to the favourite of the emperor. 9 He felt 
rather timid at the interview : Maecenas spoke to him 
with his usual reserved and curt manner, took no notice 
of him for nine months, and then sent for him and en- 
rolled him in the number of his friends. Thenceforth 
Horace enjoyed uninterruptedly his friendship and 
intimacy — of the affectionate nature of which many 
evidences may be found in those poetical pieces which 
Horace addressed to him. 



1 Ep, II. ii. 49. 2 Suet, in Vita. 3 Ep. II. xiv. 17. 

4 Sat. I. vi. 114. 5 Ep. II. ii. 51. 6 Sat. I. vi. 

? b. c. 41. 8 Sat. I. v. 39. 9 Ibid. vi. 55 



HORACE BEGINS THE SATIRES. 273 

As Maecenas rose in influence and favour with Au- 
gustus, he also procured the advancement of his friend. 
When he was sent by Augustus on the delicate mission 
of effecting a reconciliation with Anthony, Horace ac- 
companied him -, 1 and it is not impossible that his ship- 
wreck oft' Cape Palinurus occurred when he was sailing 
with Maecenas on his expedition against S. Pompey. 

At this period of his life he commenced the composition 
of his first book of Satires. 2 The knowledge of human 
life which he had begun to acquire when he lived, as it 
were, upon the town, and became acquainted with the 
manners, habits, and modes of thinking of the masses, 
was afterwards cultivated, refined, and matured by inter- 
course with the best literary society. His observant 
miud found ample materials for satire at the table of the 
courtly Maecenas, and amidst the brilliant circle by which 
he was surrounded. In this, his first publication, he also 
introduces himself to the reader's notice, draws a lively 
picture of his youth, and describes the life which was 
congenial to his tastes, and which his change of circum- 
stances permitted him to lead. 

But it must not be supposed that he wrote nothing at 
that time except satire. Some of his odes, which display 
the strength of youthful passions and the loosest mo- 
rality, were probably written as separate fugitive pieces, 
and circulated privately amongst his friends. The ode 
to Canidia narrates a circumstance in the early part 
of his poetical career. The Epodes breathe the spirit of 
the satirist rather than of the lyric poet ; and therefore the 
coarsest of them 3 also, may belong to the same period, 4 
although the book which bears that name was not com- 



1 Sat. I. v. 

2 According to Bentley, he composed them in the twenty-sixth, twenty- 
seventh, and twenty-eighth years of his age ; according to Clinton, in the 
twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, and twenty-seventh. 

3 Ex. gr. viii. xi. xii. 4 See Od. I. 1(5. 22. 



274 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

pleted and published as a whole until some years subse- 
quently. 

The bitterness of some of the Epodes is more suitable 
to his years of adversity, and the hard struggles by 
which the temper is soured, than to that life of ease and 
comfort which patronage enabled him to lead. Then his 
temper resumed its wonted placidity, whilst his moral 
taste was refined ; his Archilochian iambics became less 
cutting, and his ideas less gross ; personal invective was 
laid aside, and his indignation was only aroused by the 
prospect of political troubles and the horrors of civil com- 
motions. 

Maecenas accompanied his friendship with substantial 
favours. He gave him, or procured for him by his 
influence, the public grant of his Sabine farm. It was 
situated in a beautiful valley near Digentia (Licenza). 
Being about fifteen miles from Tibur (Tivoli), it was suf- 
ficiently near the capital to suit the fickle poet, who when 
there often regretted the luxury, and gossip, and bril- 
liant society of Eome, and, when at Rome, sighed for the 
frugal table, the quiet retirement, the rural employment 
of his country abode. The rapid alternation of town and 
country life, which the possession of this estate enabled 
Horace to enjoy, gives a peculiar charm to his poetry. 
The scene is ever changing : his mind reflects the tenor 
of his life ; simple pictures of rural life, and the elegant 
refinements of polished society, relieve one another, and 
prevent dulness and satiety. The property was neither 
extensive nor fertile, but it was sufficient for his mode- 
rate wants and wishes, which are so beautifully expressed 
in his sixth Satire — a poem which has found many modern 
imitators. 

At Rome, Horace occupied a house on the pleasant and 
healthful heights of the Esquiline. Here he resided 
during the winter and spring, with the exception of occa- 
sional sojourns at Baise, or other places of fashionable 



HIS COUNTRY LIFE. 275 

resort, on the southern coast of Italy. Summer and 
autumn he passed at his Sabine farm, where he was a 
great favourite with his simple neighbours, and where he 
found all that he ever wished for, and even more. 

Modus agri 11011 ita magnus, 
Hortus ubi, et tecto vicinus jugis aquae fona, 
Et paulum silvae super his. 1 

He coveted not his neighbour's field, 2 even though it dis- 
figured his own. He never prayed that chance might 
throw in his way a buried vase of silver. 3 The calm of 
his life contrasted favourably with the hundred affairs — 
not so much his own as of other people — which tormented 
him at Eome ; 4 the importunities of his friends that he 
would use his influence in their behalf with Msecenas ; 5 
the growing envy to which his good fortune subjected 
him : 6 his only cares were to store up provisions for his 
frugal maintenance during the year, 7 so that he might 
live in sweet forgetfulness of how he lived. 8 His days 
were divided between the books of the ancients, 9 the phi- 
losophy of Plato, and the livery scenes of Menander. 10 

The pleasing labours of the farm served him by way of 
exercise, although his town habits and awkwardness, and 
perhaps his short and stout figure, panting and perspiring 
under the heat and exertion, sometimes provoked good- 
humoured laughter. 11 At times, although he confessed 
how dangerous was the siren voice of sloth, he would spend 
hours of musing idleness on the margin of his favourite 
stream, listening to its murmurs, and to the music of the 
shepherd's reed as it echoed through the Arcadian glen. 12 
The evenings were devoted to social converse with honest 
and virtuous friends, from which scandal and gossip were 



1 Sat. II. vi. 1. 2 Ibid. 8. 3 Ibid. 10. 

4 Ibid. vi. 33. 5 Ibid. 38. 6 Ibid. 47. 

7 Ep. I. 18. 8 Sat. II. vi. 62. 9 Ibid. vi. 61. 

10 Ibid. iii. 11. " Ep. I. iv. 15 ; xx. 24 ; Suet. V. H, 

12 Ep. I. xiv. ; Od. I. xvii. 

T % 



276 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

banished ; the conversation usually turning on moral and 
philosophical discussion, 1 whilst its seriousness was occa- 
sionally relieved by witty anecdotes and pointed fables, of 
which those of the town and country mice, and of the mad- 
man who, when cured, complained that his friends had 
destroyed all the happiness of his dreamy life, furnish ex- 
amples. At these petit s soupers, which he called " suppers 
of the gods," the guests drank as much or as little as they 
pleased of his old wine, and enjoyed perfect freedom from 
the absurd laws which Roman custom permitted the 
chairman (arbiter bibendi) on such occasions to impose. 

Sometimes, when the heat of summer was intense, he 
retired to the loffcy Prseneste (Palestrina), where the cli- 
mate was always cool and refreshing. 2 At some period of 
his life, also, he became possessed of a villa at Tibur 
(Tivoli), of which the shady groves and roaring waterfalls 
furnished him a delightful refreshment after " the smoke, 
and magnificence, and noise of Rome." Here he wrote 
many of his Satires, and thus atchieved the reputation as a 
satirist of which he had laid the foundation already • and 
was enabled to boast that, though earnestly desirous of 
peace with the world, it were better not to provoke him ; 
that he who dared to offend him should smart for it, and 
be the laughing-stock of the whole city. 3 

The composition and arrangement of the second book 
of Satires probably occupied the thirtieth, thirty-first, and 
thirty-second years of the poet's life, 4 and it was not pub- 
lished until the following year. This date will allow time 
for the expiration of more than seven or eight years since 
his intimacy with Maecenas commenced. 5 The Satires 
were followed by the publication of the Epodes, very soon 
after the battle of Actium, 6 for the ninth is evidently an 
epinician ode on the occasion of that victory. Many of 

1 Sat. II. vi. 65. 2 Od. III. 4. 3 Sat. II. i. 45. 

4 Clinton, Fasti ; B. c. 35, 34, 33. 5 Sat. II. vi. 

6 B. c. 31. 



THE EP0DES. 277 

them contain noble sentiments, patriotic advice, burn- 
ing indignation against the Oriental self-indulgence of 
Antony, 1 the servility of Bome, its civil strife, and the 
degeneracy of the age ; and remind us that, before Horace 
became an Epicurean and a courtier, he had fought 
against a tyrant in the ranks of freedom. 2 The first 
Epode was written just before the battle of Actium ; the 
second and third at the period when he first exchanged 
the life of a fashionable man about town for that of a 
country gentleman. We see in one the delight which 
he derived from the consciousness that his estate was 
his own ; that he had no pecuniary embarrassments any 
longer ; his anticipations of the happiness to be enjoyed 
in the regularly-recurring labours of rural life ; in the 
absence of all care ; in the kind-hearted anticipations of 
humble domestic felicity ; the superiority of a healthful 
meal to all the luxuries that wealth could purchase. In 
the other, notwithstanding all these professions of senti- 
ment, he shows that his refined urbanity is shocked by 
the grossness of rural habits. His delicate nose can- 
not endure the smell of garlic : to him it is nothing 
less than poison, such as Canidia or Medea might have 
used. It is more deadly than the malaria of Apulia, or 
the envenomed robe steeped in the blood of Nessus. Nay, 
in the same spirit that Johnson said " Pie who would 
make a pun would pick a pocket," he does not scruple to 
affirm that a garlic-eater would commit parricide. 

The seventh Epode is a burst of indignant expostula- 
tion against the fratricidal madness which, at the bidding 
of an unprincipled woman, armed Eomans against each 
other in that tragical episode, the Perugian war, when 
the first struggle took place between the civilians and the 
soldiers for political influence and power. In the Epodes 
the spirit is that of the satirist exaggerated. The out- 



1 Ex. (jr. ix. xvi. 2 Sec Ep. VII. ix. 



278 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ward form which he had modelled by a careful study of 
the Archilochian verse, prepared him for the cultivation of 
that poetry in which he stands pre-eminent. It was the 
state of transition through which he passed before he 
became a lyric poet. 

With their publication concludes the first period of 
Horace's literary life. It was now flowing on calmly 
and peaceably, undisturbed by anxiety either about him- 
self or his country. Although the civil wars were not 
yet ended, or the peace of the world solemnly and finally 
proclaimed until the temple of Janus was closed, 1 the 
course of Octavius to universal empire lay plain and open 
before him. Home was at his feet, and owed to him its 
safety and prosperity. 

Public and private well-doing developed a new phase 
of Horace's genius. His muse soared to heights which 
had only been attempted by Pindar and the other Greek 
lyric poets. It cannot, of course, be supposed that he 
lived to the age of thirty-five years without having writ- 
ten many of those odes, which are so full of a youthful 
sprightliness and burning passion ; but it is certain that 
many more were written, and the first three books pub- 
lished, during the period of eight years included between 
his thirty-fifth and forty-second years ; 2 some when he was 
approaching, others when he had passed, his eighth lustre. 
In these three books it is probable that Horace intended 
all the productions of his lyric muse should be comprised : 
to this purpose the last ode of the third book 3 seems to 
point. He considered his work done ; and he was not 
insensible to the successful manner in which he had ac- 
complished it. With conscious pride, and in a prophetic 
spirit, he exclaimed — 

Exegi monumentum sere perennius. 

He intended his beloved friend and patron, Maecenas, 



b. c. 29. 2 Clinton, F, H. 3 Lib. iii. 30. 



FIRST BOOK OF THE EPISTLES. 279 

to be the subject of his last, as he was of his first, song. 
His introductory satire — the commencement of his pub- 
lished works — was addressed to him ; the last ode in the 
book 1 (except that final one which proclaims his task 
finished) is a noble farewell, breathing the language of 
affectionate compliment ; 2 and in the introduction to his 
new work, the labour of his maturer years, the fruit of 
careful judgment respecting men and things, he states 
his determination to finish his career as a poet, and to 
devote his last verses to his patron. 

A few years after the first three books of the Odes 
Horace published the first book of the Epistles. Bentley 
assigns the appearance of these finished and elaborate 
compositions to B.C. 19, Clinton to B.C. 20. The Carmen 
Scevulare, which appeared B.C. 17, on the occasion of the 
celebration of the Secular Grames, and the fourth book 
of the Odes, which was published b.c 13, were written at 
the personal request of the Emperor. He wished him to 
celebrate the victories gained over the Yindelici by his 
step-sons, Tiberius and Drusus. His compliance with the 
wishes of Augustus was a graceful return for the regard 
and affection which the letters of the Emperor show that 
he felt for the poet. 3 The warm admiration which these 
odes express, the praises which are lavished in them upon 
Augustus and his step-sons Tiberius and Drusus, may 
seem inconsistent with the poet's former republicanism ; 
but who could withstand the proffered friendship, the 
winning courtesy, the good-tempered condescension of 
his patron ? 

Besides, the experience of the past years must have 
forced him conscientiously to believe that the reign of 
Augustus was indeed a blessing to his country, and that 
his counhynien were totally unfit for real liberty, as they 
showed themselves quite content with the empty shadow 



Lib. iii. 29. 2 Ep. I. i. 1—10. 3 See Vit. Hor. Suet. 



280 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

of the constitution. He felt peace and repose were to be 
purchased by almost any sacrifice except that of honour- 
able principle ; that not only all the enjoyments of life 
were secured to himself to an extent equalling, if not sur- 
passing, the wishes of his contented spirit, but that a 
similar measure of happiness was pretty generally dif- 
fused. He could not sympathise with political ambition, 
which had been the fruitful source of civil anarchy, and 
it was only the ambitious who had any cause to be dis- 
satisfied. Doubtless the older he grew the stronger was 
the obligation which he felt to him who, by the lofty 
position which he had attained, had apparently prevented 
even the possibility of revolution or change. It is cer- 
tain that the second book of the Epistles, and that ad- 
dressed to the Pisos, which is commonly called the Art 
of Poetry, were written and published during the last 
years of his life ; but the date cannot be exactly deter- 
mined. He had long bid adieu to the excitements of 
politics ; nor do these, his latest works, exhibit traces of 
his fondnes for discussing questions of moral science, or 
for the profounder speculations of natural philosophy. 
He limits himself to the neutral ground of literature ; and 
writes only as a critic whose judgment would be undis- 
puted, because his works in their several departments had 
actually formed the taste of his contemporaries. 

In November, B.C. 8, a.u.c. 746, Horace was seized 
with a sudden attack of illness, and died in the fifty-seventh 
year of his age. His old friend Maecenas had expired 
but a few months before. They were buried near one 
another on the slope of the Esquiline. His death was so 
sudden that he was unable to write a will ; he had but 
just time before he expired to nominate, according to a 
common custom, the Emperor his heir. 

Horace was never married ; he was too general an ad- 
mirer, and his tastes and habits were too much those of a 
bachelor to appreciate the happiness of a wedded life. In 



HORACE A VALETUDINARIAN. 281 

this respect his feelings resembled those of the voluptuous 
and selfish society of his times. He was of small and 
slight figure, 1 but afterwards he grew corpulent. 2 The 
vigour which he enjoyed in early youth 3 was diminished 
by ill health, he became prematurely grey, 4 and a passage 
in one of his Odes seems to imply that he was a valetudi- 
narian at forty. 5 

1 Ep. I. xx. 2 Suet. Ep. Aug. in Vita. 3 Ep, I. vii. 26 ; 3. 

4 Ep. I. xx. 5 Od. II. iv. 22. 



282 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CHARACTER OF HORACE — DESCRIPTIONS OF HIS VILLA AT TIVOLI, 
AND HIS SABINE FARM — SITE OF THE BANDUSIAN FOUNTAIN 
— THE NEIGHBOURING SCENERY— SUBJECTS OF HIS SATIRES 
AND EPISTLES— BEAUTY OF HIS ODES — IMITATIONS OF GREEK 
POETS — SPURIOUS ODES — CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT. 

The life of Horace is especially instructive, as a mirror 
in which is reflected a faithful image of the manners of 
his day. He is the representative of Eoman refined 
society as Virgil is of the national mind. He who under- 
stands Horace and his works can picture to himself the 
society in which he lived and moved. One cannot sym- 
pathize with Petrarch, when he says " Se ex nullo poeta 
Latino evasisse meliorem quam ex Horatio/' or exclaim 
with the devoted Maecenas, 

Ni te visceribus meis Horati 
Plus jam diligo, tu tuum sodalem 
Mnnio videas strigosiorem — 

but still it is scarcely possible not to feel an affection for 
him. Notwithstanding his selfish Epicureanism, he pos- 
sessed those elements of character which constitute the 
popularity of men of the world. He was a gentleman in 
taste and sentiments. He would not have denied himself 
any gratification for the sake of others ; but he would not 
willingly have caused any one a moment's uneasiness, nor 
was he ever ungrateful to those who were kind to him. 
He was a pleasant friend and a good-humoured associate, 
adroit in using the language of compliment, but not a 



CHARACTER OF HORACE. 283 

flatterer, because he was candid and sincere. He changed 
his politics, but lie had good cause for so doing. The 
circumstances of the times furnished ample justification. 
His morals were lax, but not worse than those of his 
contemporaries : all that can be said is, that he was not 
in advance of his age. His principles will not bear com- 
parison with a high moral standard ; but he had good 
qualities to compensate for his moral deficiencies. He 
looked at virtue and vice from a worldly, not a moral 
point of view. With him the former was prudence, the 
latter folly. Vice, therefore, provoked a sneer of derision, 
and not indignation at the sin or compassion for the 
sinner, and for the same reason he was incapable of 
entertaining a holy enthusiasm for virtue. 

Good-tempered as a man, he nevertheless showed that 
he belonged to the genus irritabile vatum. He was jealous 
of his poetical reputation. Not, indeed, towards his con- 
temporaries, but towards the poets of former ages. He 
either could not or would not see any merit in old Eoman 
poetry. His prejudice cannot be ascribed only to his 
enthusiasm for Greek literature, for he did not even 
appreciate the excellences which the old school of poetry 
had in common with the Greeks. Party spirit had some- 
what to do with it, for a feud on the subject divided the 
literary society of the day, 1 and hence Horace took his 
side warmly and uncompromisingly. 

But the principal cause was jealousy — unless he ignored 
Lucilius and Catullus, he could not claim to have been 
the first follower of Archilochus of whom Eome could 
boast ; or, as the representative of Eoman lyric poetry, 
to have first turned his lyre to iEolian song. 

The scenes in which Horace passed his life are so 
interesting to every reader of his works, that a few words 



1 This feud continued until the time of Persius. (See Sat. I. 141, and 
Gifiord's note.) 



284 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

respecting his villa at Tivoli and his Sabine farm will 
not be ont of place here. Tibur 1 is situated on one of the 
spurs of the Apennines, about fifteen or sixteen miles 
from Rome, on the left bank of the Anio (Teverone). 
The river winds gently by the town, separating it from 
the villa of Horace, and then, falling in a sheet of water 
over an escarped rock, disappears beneath a rocky cavern. 
Its roaring echoes are heard far and wide, and justifies 
the epithet (resonans), which Horace gives to the dwelling 
of Albunea, the Tiburtine Sibyl. The villa commanded 
fine views, and a garden sloped down from it to the 
river's bank. Prom its grounds was visible the palace of 
Maecenas : on the opposite shore the wooded Sabine hills 
sheltered it from the north ; and the domain of the poet's 
friend, Quintilius Yarus, formed its western boundary. 

About fifteen miles north-east of Tibur, nestling 
amongst the roots of Mount Lucretilis, lay the Sabine 
farm. Fragments of white marble, and mosaic, which have 
been found there, show that, notwithstanding the simple 
frugality, which Horace delights to describe, it was built 
and embellished with elegance and taste. From the 
mountain side, which rises behind the house, trickles a 
clear stream, the source of which is now called Fonte 
Bello, and which afterwards becomes the river Digentia 
(Licenza), and waters the beautiful valley of the sloping 
Ustica ( Usticce Cubantis) . This rill, the parent of Horace's 
favourite river, the embellisher of that " riant angle of 
the earth," is interesting as being probably the fountain 
of Bandusia, " more transparent than glass," 2 with whose 
fresh and sparkling waters the poet tempered his wine. 

M. de Chaupy 3 assumes that the Bandusian fountain, 
mentioned by Horace, was situated near the birthplace 
of Horace, on the Lucano-Apulian border. His opinion 



1 See De Chaupy, Eustace, Milman, &c. 2 Od. III. 13. 

3 Decouverte de la Maison d'Horace, torn. iii. p. 364. 



THE BANDUSIAN FOUNTAIN. 285 

rests on the words of a grant made by Pope Pascal II. to 
the abbot of the Bantine monastery ; and Mr. Hobhouse 1 
considers this document as decisive in ascertaining its 
position. It is decisive as to the existence of a Bandusian 
fountain near Venusia ; but it must be rememoered that 
Horace never saw it after the days of his childhood, when 
bis paternal estate passed away from him for ever, whilst 
he speaks of his Bandusian fountain as near him, when 
lie writes and promises to sacrifice a kid to the guardian 
genius of the spring. What, then, is more probable than 
the suggestion of Mr. Dunlop, 2 that the same pleasing 
recollections of his early years, which inspired him to 
relate his touching adventure, led him to " name the 
clearest and loveliest stream of his Sabine retreat after that 
fountain which lay in Apulia, and on the brink of which 
he had no doubt often sported in infancy ?" 3 He has, in 
one of Iris odes, alluded to this affectionate desire to per- 
petuate reminiscences of home — a desire which is illus- 
trated by the topographical nomenclature which has been 
adopted by colonists of every age and country. 

Mr. Dennis, however, in a letter written at Licenza, 4 in 
sight of the pleasant shades of M. Lucretilis, although he 
makes no doubt of the Bandusian fountain being in the 
neighbourhood, does not identify it with the Fonte Bello. 
He asserts that, although he has traced every streamlet 
in the neighbourhood, the only one which answers to the 
classical description is one now called " Fonte Blandusia." 
It rises in a narrow glen which divides the Mount Lu- 
cretilis from Ustica, which probably derives its modern 
name Valle Rustica from a corruption of the classical 
appellation. As you ascend the glen it contracts into a 
ravine with bare cliffs on either side ; the streamlet with 
difficulty winds its way between mossy rocks (musco cir- 



1 Illust. to Childe Harold, p. 42. 2 Hist, of Rom. Lit. iii. 213. 

3 Od. I. vii. 29. 4 See Milman's Hor. p. 97. 



286 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

cumlita saxa), overshadowed with dense woods which 
effectually exclude the heat of the blazing Dog-star. The 
water issues from a rock, and trickles into two successive 
natural basins. " The water is indeed splendidior vitro ; 
nothing, not even the Thracian Hebrus, can exceed it in 
purity, coolness, and sweetness: "its loquacious waters 
still bubble " the very ilices still overhang the hollow 
rocks whence it springs. 

A reference to Horace's description 1 will prove to the 
modern traveller through this classic region with what 
fidelity and accuracy the poet has described the natural 
features of the scenery. The mountain chain is continu- 
ous and unbroken (continui monies), save by the well- 
wooded and therefore shady valley of the Digentia, 
which intersects it in such a direction that — 

Veniens dextrum latus aspiciat sol, 
Lsevum decedens curru fugiente vaporet. 

Another valley meets it, and on an exposed height, at 
the point of junction, stands Bardela, in Horace's time 
Mandela, and well described by him as rugosus frigore 
pagus. 2 Corn grows on the sunny field (apricum pratum) 
which slopes from the farm to the river : the ruins of 
other dwellings mark the spot occupied by five domestic 
hearths, and sending ^yq honest representatives to the 
municipal council of the neighbourhood : — 

habitatum quinque focis, et 



Quinque bonos solitum Variam dimittere patres. 3 

A comparison of the truthful and descriptive verses 
of Horace identify the spot which he loved. Nature is 
the same now as it was then ; but human skill and per- 
severance have adorned with the purple clusters of the 



1 Ep. I. xvi. 5. See also Eustace's Class. Tour. 2 Ep. I. xviii. 105. 
3 Ep. I. xiv. 2. 



THE SATIRES* 287 

vine that " little corner of the world" which Horace 
said would hear pepper and frankincense more quickly 
than grapes. 1 

The Satires of Horace occupy the position of the 
comedy of manners and the fashionahle novel. They are 
much more appropriately described by the title Sermones 
(discourses) which is also given to them. They are, in 
tact, desultory didactic essays, in which the topics are 
discussed just as they present themselves. In them is 
sketched boldly but good-humouredly a picture of 
Eoman social life with its vices and follies. His object 
was (to use his own words) — 

Ut omnis 
Votivil pateat veluti descripta tabella 
Vita. Sat. II. i. 32. 

Vices, however, are treated as follies ; and the man of 
wit and pleasure seldom uses a weapon more keen than 
the shafts of ridicule :— 

Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico 
Tangit et admissus circum praecordia ludit. 

Persius, S. i. 116. 

Arch Horace, while he strove to mend, 
Probed all the foibles of his smiling friend ; 
Played lightly round and round the peccant part, 
And won unfelt an entrance to his heart ; 
Well skilled the follies of the crowd to trace, 
And sneer with gay good humour in his face. 

Giffoi-d* 

There is nothing of the political bitterness of Lucilius, 3 
the love of purity and honour which adorns Persius, or 
the burning indignation which Juvenal pours forth at 
the loathsome corruption of morals. Horace had been a 
politician and a warm champion of liberty ; but the 
struggle was now over, both with himself and his 



1 Ep. I. xiv. 23. 

2 See also Pope's imitation of this passage, Essay on Satire, part iii. 

3 See Persius, Sat. I. 114. 



288 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

country. Ease and tranquillity were insured to both by 
the new regime ; and his contented temper disposed him 
to acquiesce in a state of things which gave Borne time 
to rest from the horrors of civil war, and did not interfere 
with the independence of the individual. Hence the 
circumstances of the times, as well as his own temper, 
rendered his Satires social and not political. Lucilius 
wrote when the strife between nobles and people was still 
raging, and the latter had not as yet succumbed. He, 
therefore, breathed the spirit of the old Athenian comic 
poets whom he followed and emulated; and the war of 
public opinion furnished him with topics similar to those 
which were discussed in the republican commonwealth of 
Athens. 

Circumstances also influenced, in some degree, the tone 
of Horace's strictures on the habits of social life. Im- 
moral as society was, its most salient features were 
luxury, frivolity, extravagance, and effeminacy. Yice 
had not reached that appalling height which it attained 
in the time of the emperor who succeeded Augustus. 
Deficient in moral purity, an Epicurean and a debauchee, 
nothing would strike him as deserving censure except 
such excess as would actually defeat the object which he 
proposed to himself — namely, the utmost enjoyment of 
life. The dictates of prudence, therefore, would be his 
highest standard and his strongest check. He saw that 
public morals were already deteriorated, and threatened 
to become worse ; but though they were bad enough 
to provoke derision, they did not shock or revolt one 
who was, and who professed to be, a man of the world. 
Had Horace lived in the time of Persius or Lucilius, 
even his satire would probably have been pointed and 
severe. 

Often his satires are only accidentally didactic; he 
contents himself with graphic delineations of character 
and manners, and leaves them to produce their own 



SATIRES AND EPISTLES. 289 

moral effect upon the reader. In one 1 he holds up the 
superstition of the Eomans to ridicule by a minute 
narrative of the absurd ceremonies performed by Canidia 
and another sorceress in their incantations. In another, 2 
amusingly describes the annoyance to which he was 
exposed by the importunities of a gossiping trifler. In 
the journey to Brundisium he seems to have had no view 
beyond entertainment ; although two incidents give him 
an opportunity of exposing the pomposity of a municipal 
official and the superstitious follies of a country town. 3 
In others, his subjects are the scenery and neighbour- 
ing society of his Sabine valley ; 4 the way in which he is 
wont to spend his day when at Eome ; his own auto- 
biography; 5 a laughable trial in Asia; 6 an essay on 
cookery; 7 and a candid exposure of his own faults and 
inconsistencies. Not that he is forgetful of his moral 
duties as a satirist. He exposes to merited contempt the 
prevailing iniquities of the day. The meanness of legacy- 
hunting; the absurdity of pretension and foppery; the 
folly of an inordinate passion for amassing wealth ; 8 the 
dangers of adultery ; 9 the unfairness of uncharitably mis- 
interpreting the conduct of others. 10 

Such are the varied subjects contained in the Sermones 
or Satires of Horace. The Epistles are still more desultory 
and unrestrained. Epistolary writing is especially a 
Eoman accomplishment. The Eomans thought their 
correspondents deserved that as much pains should be 
bestowed on that which was addressed to them as on 
that which was intended for the public eye ; and, in ad- 
dition to the careful polish of which Cicero set the 
example, Horace brought to the task the embellishment 
of poetry. In the Epistles, he lays aside the character of 



1 Sat. I. 8. 


2 Ibid. 


9. 


3 Ibid 


. v. 




4 Sat. 


II 


vi. 


5 Sat. I. vi. 


6 Ibid. 


vii. 


7 Sat. 


II. 


iv. 


8 Sat. 


I. 


1. 


9 Ibid 2. 


10 Ibid. 


3. 















290 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

a moral teacher or censor. He treats his correspondent 
as an equal. He opens his heart unreservedly : he gives 
advice, but in a kind and gentle spirit, not with sneering 
severity. The satire is delivered ex cathedra ; the epistle 
with the freedom with which he would converse with an 
intimate friend. 

The subjects of the first books are moral, those of the 
second critical. The Ars Poetica is but a poetical epistle 
addressed to the Pisos, who had been bitten by the pre- 
vailing mania for tragic poetry. The usual title claims 
a far greater extent of subject than the poet intended. 
It is not a treatise on poetry, but simply an outline of 
the history of the Greek drama, and the principles of 
criticism applicable to it. It harmonizes well with the 
literary subjects treated of in the second book of the 
Epistles, and might well be included in it. It is, indeed, 
longer and more elaborate : a synopsis of so extensive a 
subject required more careful treatment; but it is im- 
possible to form a correct estimate of the taste and judg- 
ment which it displays, unless it is considered as nothing 
more than an epistle. 

The versification of these compositions is more smooth 
than that of the Satires, but only in proportion to the 
superior neatness of the style generally. In neither does 
the metrical harmony rise to the height of poetry, pro- 
perly speaking. Doubtless this was the poet's deliberate 
intention. It cannot be supposed that he who could so 
successfully introduce all the beautiful Greek lyric metres, 
and in some cases improve the delicacy of their structure, 
was incapable of reproducing the rhythm of the Greek 
hexameter. He felt that in subjects belonging to the pro- 
saic realities of life, and hitherto treated with the con- 
versational facility of the iambic measure, some appearance 
of negligence and even roughness could alone render the 
stately hexameter appropriate, and therefore tolerable. 
But, admirable as the Satires are for their artistic and 



\ 



BEAUTY OF THE ODES. 291 

dramatic power, and the Epistles for their correct taste, 
lively wit, and critical elegance, it is in his inimitable 
Odes that the genius of Horace as a poet is especially 
displayed. They have never been equalled in beauty of 
sentiment, gracefulness of language, and melody of versi- 
fication. They comprehend every variety of subject 
suitable to the lyric muse. They rise without effort to 
the most elevated topics — the grandest subjects of history, 
the most gorgeous legends of mythology, the noblest 
aspirations of patriotism : they descend to the simplest 
joys and sorrows of every-day life. At one time they 
burn with indignation, at another they pour forth 
accents of the tenderest emotions. They present in turn 
every phase of the author's character : some remind us 
that he was a philosopher and a satirist ; and although 
many are sensuous and self-indulgent, they are full of 
gentleness, kindness, and spirituality. Not only do they 
evince a complete mastery over the Greek metres, but 
also show that Horace was thoroughly imbued with the 
spirit of Greek poetry, and had profoundly studied Greek 
literature, especially the writings of Pindar and the lyric 
poets. Numerous as the instances are in which he has 
imitated them, and introduced by a happy adaptation 
their ideas, epithets, and phrases, his imitations are not 
mere plagiarisms or purple patches — they are made so 
completely his own, and are invested with so much 
novelty and originality, that, when compared with the 
original, we receive additional gratification from discover- 
ing the resemblance. The sentiments which are para- 
phrased seem improved ; the expressions which are trans- 
lated, seem so appropriate, and harmonize so exactly with 
the context, that a poet, whose memory was stored with 
them, would have been guilty of bad taste if he had 
substituted any others. Greek feelings, sentiments, and 
imagery, are so naturally amalgamated with Roman 
manners, that they seem to have undergone a trans - 

u 2 



292 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

migration, and to animate a Roman form. The following 
are some of the most striking parallelisms :* — 

Sunt quos curriculo, &c. Carm. 1, 3, seq. 

'AeXXo7roSo)z/ pe v Tivas evcppai- 

vovaiv "nvnobv ripai kcu are(pavor 

tovs §' ev 7rokvxpvcroLs OaXdpois (Siora' 

repneraL 8e /cat tls en oidp' akiov 

vat 6oa eras dtaa-relx^v. Find. Fragm. 



Jam te premet nox, fabulaeque Manes, 
Et domus exilis Plutonia : quo simul mearis, 
Nee regna vini sortiere talis, &c. 

Carm. 1, 4, 16, seq. 

Kardavoio-a 8e Kelcr , oiiSeVore p,vapo<rvva credev 
eaaer ovheivor els varepov. ov yap nehex^ts jBpodcov 
T(ov 4k TLiepias. dXX' d<pavr)S ktjv Aida bopois 
(poLrdaeis n^eS' dpLavpwv veKvoav eKireTTOTapeva. 

Sa/pjph. Fragm. 

Vides, ut ulta stet nive candidum 
Soracte, nee jam sustineant onus 
Silvae laborantes, geluque 
Flumina constiterint acuto 1 
Dissolve frigus, ligna super foco 
Large reponens ; atque benignius 
Deprome quadrimum Sabina, 
Thaliarche, merum diota. 



"Yei pev 6 Zevs, in §' opavco peyas 
^ei/xooi/* Tveirdyacnv 8' vddrcov poai. 



Carm. 1, 9, seq. 



Ka/3/3aXXe tov ^ei/Awi/, en\ pev Tideis 
7rvp, ev he tdpvais oivov dcpeideas 
p.e\ixP° v ' a-vrap dpm Kopcra 

p,aX6aKov dpiriTiQei yvdcpaWov. 

Alccei Fragm. 

Quern virum aut heroa lyra vel acri 
Tibia sumis celebrare, Clio ? 
Quern Deum ? cujus recinet jocosa 

Nomen imago, &c. Carm. 1, 12, seq. 

*Ava£;i(p6ppiyyes vpvoi 

rlva OeoVy riv T^pcoa, riva S' avhpa KeXabrjcropev. 

Find. 01. 2, 1, 

1 See Prof. Anthon's Horace, Donaldson's Pindar, &c. 



IMITATIONS OF THE GREEK. 293 

i) aavis, referent in inare te novi 
Fluetus ? O quid agis ? fortiter occulta 
Porturu. Nonne vides, ut 
Nudum reuiigio latus, 
Et malus celeri saucius Africo 
Aiitenna3que gemant ? ac sine funibus 
Vix durare carina) 
Possint iniperiosius 
jEquor 1 Carm. 1, 14, seq. 

To fitv yap evdev Kvpa KvXivderai, 
To 5' evdev appcs 8' av to peaaov 
vat (popTjfxeOa aiiv pcXaiva, 
Xet/^&m po^devvres peydXto Kakcov 
Trap pev yap avrXos lo'Torrebav e^et, 
Xalq)o9 de nap £d8rjXov rjb-q, 
Ka\ XaKides peydXai kot avro 
XaAao-i 8' ayKvpai .... Alccei Fragm. 



Nullani, Vare, sacra vite prius severis arborem. 

Carm. 1, 18, seq. 

Mrjbev aXAo (fiVTevcrrjs TTporepov bevdpeov dp7reXco. 

Alccei Fragm. 

Vitas hinnuleo me similis, Chloe, 
Quserenti pavidam montibus aviis 
Matrem, non sine vano 

Aurarum et silvse metu. Carm. 1, 23, seq. 

"Are ve(3pov veo6rp\ea yaXaOrjvbv, os ev vXrj 
Kepoeo-arjs d-rroXeMpdels vtto prjTpos enTorjdrj. 

Anacr. Fragm. 

O Venus, regina Gnidi Paphique, 

Sperne dilectam Cypron, &c. Carm. 1, 30, seq. 

Kvnpov Ipeprdv Xmoiara na\ Ud(pov nepippvTav. 

Alcman. Fragm, 

Quid dedicatum poscit Apollinem 
Vates ? quid orat, de patera novum 

Fundens liquorem 1 &c. Carm. 1, 31, seq. 

Ti 6° epbcov, (pCXos croi re, 

KaprcpojSpoisra Kpoi/t'Sa, 

(piXos de MotVaiy, EvOvpia re 

peXcov elrjv, tovt a'lTrjpi ae. Pind. FiVjn). 



294 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Nunc est bibenduni, nunc pecle libero 

Pulsanda tellus, &c. Carm. 1, 37. seq. 

Nuv XPV fJ-£0v(TK€iv, Ka\ TLva ivpbs /3iaz/ 

7riv€iv, cTretdn tcdrOave MvpcriXos. Alccei Fragm. 



Nullus argento color est avaris 
Abdito terris, inimiee lamnse 
Crispe Sallusti, nisi temperato 

Splendeat usu. Carm. 2, 2, seq. 

Ovk epafxai ttoXvv iv jj.eya.pcp 7tXovtov KaTaKpv\j/ats eyeiv 
gXX' eovroov, ev re iraSa-v koI ciKOvcrai, (pCXois itjapicecov. 

Find. Nem. 1, 45. 

Ssevius ventis agitatur ingens 

Pinus. Carm. 2, 10, 9, seq. 

Ov Bpvov ov p.aXax'rjv avep,6s nore, ras de fxeyicrTas 
r) bpvas rj TrXardvovs olde xap,cu Kardyeiv. 

Lucian. in Anthol. 

Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume, 
Labuntur anni : nee Pietas moram 
Kugis et instanti Senectse 
Adferet, indomiteeque Morti. 

Carm. 2, 14, seq. 
'AAV okiyoxpoviov yiyverai, ccenrep ovap, 
rjj3r) rt/x^ecro-a- to d' dpyaXiov kcu ap,opcpoi> 
yrjpas vrrep KecpaXrjs avrl^ VTrepupep-aTCii. 

Mimnerm. Fragm. 

Quid brevi fortes jaculamur sevo 

Multa? Carm. 2, 16, 17. 

■ 'Q, Kevol (3porcov, 

ot to^ov ivrelvovres cos Kaipov irtpa. 

Eurip. Buppl. 754. 

■ Nihil est ab omni 

Parte beatum. Carm. 2, 16, 27. 

Ovk eanv ovSsv did reXovs evbaip.ovovv . 

Furip. Suppl. 281. 

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. 

Carm. 3, 2, 13. 

Tedvdp,evai yap KaXbv eVi 7rpojLta^oio"i ireaovra 
avbp dyadbv 7rep\ r/ TrarpiDi p,apvdp,evov. 

Tyrtcei Fragm. 



IMITATIONS OK THE GREEK. 
Mors et fttgacem persequitur viruin. 

*0 iV av QdvciTos ext^e koi tqv (pvydpaxov. 



295 



Carm. 3, 2, 14. 



Simonides. 



/Etas parentum, pejor avis, tulit 

Nos nequiores, mox daturos 

Progeiiiem vitiosioreni. 



Carm. 3. 0, 46, seq. 



Olrjv xpvcreioi warepes yeverjv iXinovro''- 
Xeiporeprjv ! vpels 6e Ka/ccorepa re^eiecrOe. 

Arati Plicbnom. 123. 



Pulckris excubat in genis. 

"Os iv paXcucais Trapeiais 
vedviSos ivwxeveis. 



Carm. iv. 13, 8. 
Soph. Antig. 779. 



Dis miscent superis. 

Nube candentes humeros amictus. 

Erycina ridens. 

Officinas Cyclopum. 

Nitidum caput. 

Duplicis Ulixei. 

Superis parem. 

Aptum equis Argos. 

Ditesque Mycenas. 

Nil desperandum. 

Deorum nuntium. 



'Adavdrois epixOev. 

Pindar. Isthm. 2, 42. 

Ne(peXr] elXvpevos copovs. 

Horn. II. e, 186. 

&i\op€ibr)s 'AcppoftiTT). 

Horn. II. v\ 424. 

'HcpaicTTOio Kapivois. 

Callim. Fragm. 129. 

Ainapav edeipav. 

Simonid. (Anth. Gr.) 

AinXovs dvrjp. 

Eurip. Bhes. 392. 

Aaipovi icros. 

Horn. II. e. 438. 

"Apyeos itvtto^otolo. 

Horn. II. p t 287. 

MvKrjvas rds iroKvxpvcrovs. 

Sophocl. Elect. 9. 

"AeXnTOv ovdev. 

Eurip. Fragm. 

"AyyeXov ddavdrcov. 

Horn. Hymn in Merc. 3. 



296 



ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



Marinse filium Thetidis. 
Carpe diem. 
Difficile bile. 
Melior patre. 
Mordaces solicitudines. 
Dulee ridentem. 
Dulee loquentem. 
Funera densentur. 
Fulgentes oculos. 
Bellum lacrymosum. 
Vacuum aera. 



Loquaces lymphae. 
Fulmine caduco. 



Vis consili expers. 

Flagitio additis damnum. 

Aquae augur cornix. 

Lentus amor. 

Aquosa Ida. 

Obliquum meditantis ictum. 

Gelu acuto. 



Ilats aXias GeriSos. 

Eurip. Androm. 108. 

Kcupov Xa/3e. 

jfisch. Sept. adv. Th. 65. 

XoXov dpyaXeoio. 

Horn. II. k, 107. 

Jlarepav dpeivoves et»^d/xe^' elvai. 
Horn. 11. b\ 405. 

Tviofiopovs peXebavas. 

Hesiod. 'Epy, 66. 

reXdcras lp.£poev. 

Sappho. 

'Adv (pcovoicras. 

Sappho. 

Ovrjo-Kov eTrao-avTepot. 



Oupara pappaipovra. 

Bom. 11. y, 397. 

HoXepov baKpvaevra. 

Horn. U. e, 737. 

^prjpas Si' aWepos. 

Find. 01. a, 10. 

AaXov vbcop. 
Karai/3ar7;s Kepavvos. 

JEsch. Pr. V. 359. 

*Pd>pr) dpaOfjs. 

Eurip>. Fragm. 

Upbs alo")(yvy KaKov. 

Eurip. Ehes. 102. 

,y CzTop.avTis Kopcovq. 

Euphoricm. 

Bpabiva 'AcppobiTa. 
Sappho. 

IIoXvTrldaicos "l8rjs. 

Bom. II. %, 157. 

Aoypco t dtcrcrovre. 

Bmn. 11. p!. 148. 

Xiovos 6£eias. 

Pind. Pyth. d, 39. 



SPURIOUS ODES. 



297 



Dulci fistula. 



rx, 



v\6s. 



Testudinis aurea\ 
Magna lingua?. 
Morti atrse. 
Aureo plectro. 
Supremuni iter. 
Nescios fan infantes. 
Noctilucam. 
Purpureo ore. 
Mens trepidat metu. 



Xpvaea (f)6ppiy£. 

Pind. Pyth. d, 1. 

MeyaX;;? yXcocrcrr/?. 

Sophocl. Antiy. 12. 

MeXavos Oavaroio. 

Horn. II. #, 834. 

Xpvcrea) TrXaKTpco. 

Pind. Nem. e, 44. 

'Yardrrju 686v. 

Eurip. Alcest. 686. 

Horn. Jl. #,311. 

NvKTi\ap7rr]s. 

Simonides. 

Uop(pvpeov arro aroparos. 
Simonides. 

Aei/xari 7raAAet. 

Soph. Md. Tyr. 



The two following 1 odes have been attributed to Horace, 
but there is no doubt that they are spurious. It was 
pretended that they were discovered in the Palatine 
Library at Eome by Pallavicini : no MS., however, of 
Horace, containing them, has ever yet been found : — 

AD IULIUM FLORUM. 

Discolor grandem gravat uva ramum 
Instat Autumnus ; glacialis anno 
Mox Hiems volvente aderit, capillis 

Horrida canis. 
Jam licet Nymphas trepide fugaces 
Insequi lento pede detinendas ; 
Et labris captse, simulantis iram, 

Oscula figi. 
Jam licet viDO madidos vetusto 
De die laetum recitare carmen ; 
Flore, si te des, hilarem licebit 

Sumere noctem. 



1 Meyer, Anthol. Rom 114, 115. 



298 



ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



Jam vide curas aquilone sparsas ! 
Mens viri fortis sibi constat, utrum 
Serius leti citiusve tristis 
Advolat aura. 



AD LIBRUM SUUM. 

Dulci libelio nemo sodalium 
Forsan meorum carior extitit ; 
De te merenti quid fideiis 
Officium domino rependes 1 
Te Eoma cautum territat ardua ; 
Depone vanos invidiae metus ; 
Urbisque, fidens dignitati, 
Per plateas animosus audi. 
En quo furentes Eumenidum choros 
Disjecit almo fnlmine Jupiter ! 
Huic ara stabit, fama cantu 
Perpetuo celebranda crescet. 



According to Bentley, the works of Horace were written 
m the following chronological order : — 



Satires 

i j 
Epodes 
Odes 



II. 



Epistles 

Odes - - - 

Secular Hymn - 

Epistle to the Pisos 

Epistles 



Book I. in his 26th, 27th, and 28th years. 
31st, 32nd, and 33rd years. 
34th and 35th years. 
36th, 37th, and 38th years. 
40th and 41st years. 
42nd and 43rd years. 
46th and 47th years. 



I. 

II. 

III. 

I. 
IY. 



II. 



49th, 50th, and 51st years, 
uncertain. 



( 299 ) 



CHAPTER VII. 

BIOGRAPHY OF MAECENAS — HIS INTIMACY AND INFLUENCE WITH 
AUGUSTUS — HIS CHARACTER — VALGIUS RUFUS — VARIES — 
CORNELIUS GALLUS — BIOGRAPHY OF TIBULLUS — HIS STYLE — 
CRITICISM OF MURETUS— PROPERTIUS — IMITATED THE ALEX- 
ANDRIAN POETS— ^MILIUS MACER 

C. ClLNIUS MAECENAS. 

In a literary history it is impossible to omit some account 
of one, who, although his attempts at poetry were very 
contemptible, exercised, by his good taste and munificence, 
a great influence upon literature, and to whom the 
literary men of Borne were much indebted for the use 
which he made of his confidential friendship with Au- 
gustus. 

C. Cilnius Maecenas was a member of an equestrian 
family, which, though it derived its descent from the old 
Etruscan kings, 1 does not appear to have produced any 
distinguished indi\dduals. His birth-year is unknown, 
but his birth-day was the ides (13th) of April. 2 TVe 
have no information respecting the origin of his intimacy 
with Augustus. Probably his cultivated taste, his ex- 
tensive acquaintance with Greek and Roman literature, 
his imperturbable temper, and love of pleasure, first 
recommended him as an agreeable companion to Oc- 
tavius. 

1 Horn. 0.1. I. i. * Od. IV. ii. 



300 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

His good sense, activity, and energy in business, and 
decisive character, qualities in which his irresolute and 
desultory patron was signally deficient, enabled him 
rapidly to improve the acquaintance into intimacy. It 
is said by Dion Cassius 1 that Augustus obtained from 
Maecenas a complete plan for the internal administration 
of his newly-acquired empire, and that in it were dis- 
played sound judgment and political wisdom. It is 
probable that there is some exaggeration in this state- 
ment ; but that, without being a great man, he was in 
these respects a greater man than Augustus, who, there- 
fore, when he required his support, could lean upon him 
with safety. And yet his weaknesses were such as to 
prevent any feeling of jealousy, or appearance of supe- 
riority, from endangering his friendship with the emperor. 
His love of pleasure, and of the quiet and careless enjoy- 
ments of a private station, proved, as it turned out, a 
blessing to his country. His heart was so full of the 
delights of refined and intellectual society — of palaces and 
gardens, and wit and poetry, and collections of art and 
virtu — that there was no room in it for ambition. His 
careless and sauntering indolence was openly displayed 
in his lounging gait and his toga trailing on the ground. 
No one could possibly suspect such a loiterer of sufficient 
energy or application to be a politician and an intriguer. 
Such being his character, tastes, and habits, he felt no 
temptation to abuse his influence with Augustus. He 
did not covet honours and office, because he knew they 
must bring trouble and distraction, perhaps peril with 
them. He exercised his power, which was undoubtedly 
great, to promote that luxurious, yet refined elegance, in 
which he himself delighted, and to secure the welfare of 
his literary friends. He had wealth enough to gratify 
his utmost wishes. Augustus, therefore, had nothing 



Lib. lii. 14, &c. 



INFLUENCE OF MAECENAS. 301 

more to confer on him which he valued, except personal 
esteem and regard. 

The confidence which the Emperor reposed in him is 
shown by his employing him in some affairs of great 
delicacy : first, in arranging a marriage with Scribonia ; 
and. subsequently, on two occasions, in negotiating with 
Antony. 1 In B.C. 36, he accompanied Octavius into 
Sicily ; but was sent back in order to undertake the 
administration of Eome and Italy : 2 and, during the cam- 
paign at Actium, 3 Maecenas was again vicegerent, in 
which capacity he crushed the conspiracy of the younger 
Lepidus. So unlimited was his power, that he was even 
intrusted with the signet of Octavius, and with authority 
to open, and even to alter, if necessary, all letters which 
he wrote to the senate during his campaign ; and when 
the victorious general, on his return to Eome, consulted 
with him and Agrippa as to the expediency of re- 
establishing the republic, Maecenas, in opposition to the 
recommendation of Agrippa, dissuaded him from taking 
that step. The moral influence also of Maecenas over 
Augustus is very striking. So long as it continued, we 
see nothing of that heartless cruelty, that disregard of 
the happiness of others, which deformed the early life of 
the Emperor : if he was heartless, he at least did that as 
a matter of taste which a better man would have done 
on principle ; and if he was still selfish, he sought fame 
and glory by the wise counsels of peace rather than by 
the brilliant triumphs of war : he conciliated friends instead 
of crushing enemies. 

The intimacy between Maecenas and the Emperor con- 
tinued for at least ten years after the battle of Actium : 
then an estrangement commenced; and in b.c. 16, he 
was deprived of his official position, and Taurus was 
intrusted with the administration of Eome and Italy. 



b. c. 40. 2 Tac. Ann. vi. ii. 3 b. c. 31. 



302 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Scandalous stories have been told about his wife Terentia 
and the Emperor, in order to account for the interruption 
of their intimacy ; but no special causes are necessary to 
account for an event so common. The words of Tacitus 1 
are a sufficient solution of the problem: — "Idque et 
Msecenati acciderat ; fato potentise, raro sempiternse, an 
satietas capit, aut illos, cum omnia tribuerunt, aut hos, cum 
jam nihil reliquum est, quod cupiant." He retained the 
outward appearance of the imperial friendship, although 
he had lost the reality. He went to court on the birth- 
day, but ceased to be of the Emperor's council. His life 
was passed in the voluptuous retirement of his palace on 
the Esquiline, which he had built for himself. This hill 
was not generally considered wholesome : probably the 
fact that it had been a burial-ground 2 created a prejudice 
against it ; but the loftiness of the site chosen, as well as 
of the building itself (molem vicinam nubibus), and the 
breeze which played freely through the lovely garden, 
with which it was surrounded, rendered it salubrious. 
All the most brilliant society of Eome was found at his 
table ; and many of the best of them received still more 
substantial marks of his favour. 3 Virgil, Horace, Pro- 
pertius, and Yarius, were amongst his friends and constant 
associates. 

Maecenas was a low-spirited invalid; 4 latterly he could 
not sleep, and endeavoured in vain to procure repose by 
listening to soft music. 5 In his last distressing illness 
he generally resided at his Tiburtine villa, where the 
murmuring falls of the Anio invited that sleep which was 
denied him elsewhere. He died b.c. 8, and was buried 
on the Esquiline. Though married, he left no children, 
and bequeathed his property to the Emperor, whom he 
besought in his will not to forget his beloved Horace. 



1 Annal. iii. 30. 2 Hor. Sat. i. 8, 7. 3 Mart. viii. 56. 

4 Plin. vii. 51 : Hor. C. ii. 17. 5 Sen. de Prov. iii. 9. 



CHARACTER OF MAECENAS. 303 

J I is taste as a critic was evidently far superior to his 
talents as a writer. Few fragments of his writings 
remain ; and all ancient critics are unanimous in the con- 
demnation of his style. Augustus 1 laughed at Ins affected 
jargon of mingled Etruscan and Latin. Quintilian 2 quotes 
instances of his absurd inversions and transpositions ; 
and Seneca 3 shows, by an example, its unintelligible ob- 
scurity. 4 He was a sensualist and a voluptuary, 5 and an 
unfaithful husband ; and yet he was devotedly fond of 
his wife, the beautiful but ill-tempered Terentia, who 
had a great influence over him. He would divorce her 
one day only to restore her to conjugal rights on the 
next ; and Seneca said that, though he had only one wife, 
he was married a thousand times. He abhorred cruelty 
and severity, and would not let it pass unrebuked even 
in the Emperor ; and although he made a boast of effe- 
minacy, he was ready to devote himself heartily to 
business in case of emergency. In fact, he was a fair 
specimen of the man of pleasure and society : liberal, 
kind-hearted, clever, refined, but luxurious, self-indulgent, 
indolent, and volatile, with good instincts and impulses, 
but without principle. 

C. Valgius Bufus. 

Amongst the poets of the Augustan age, whose writ- 
ings were much admired by their contemporaries, but have 



1 Suet. 26. 2 Lib. ix. 4, 28. 

3 The three passages quoted by Quintilian show a wanton awkwardness 
in arrangement, almost inconceivable : — 

Sole et Aurora rubent plurima 

Inter sacra movit aqua fraxinos : 

Ne exequias quidem unus inter miserrimos 

Viderem meas. 

The last of these he considers especially offensive, because he seems to be 
trifling with a melancholy subject. 

4 Sen. Ep. 114. 5 Tac. Ann. i. 54. 



304 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE, 

not stood the searching test of time, was Valgius Eufus. 
Of his life no records remain ; but he probably belonged 
to that class of authors of whom Pliny says, " Quibus 
nos in vehiculo, in balneo, inter ccenam, oblectamus otium 
temporis." They were light and pleasing, calculated to 
amuse an idle half-hour, or to relieve the tedium of a 
journey. They answered the purpose of the railroad liter- 
ature of our own days. These writers had a correct taste, 
and a critical discernment of poetical beauty, rather than 
a genius for poetical composition. Probably their per- 
sonal characters had something to do with their reputa- 
tion : they were members of a literary coterie ; they lived, 
thought, and felt together; they defended each other 
against malicious criticism ; and the bonds of friendship 
by which they were united tempted the greater poets 
to regard their effusions with kind but undue partiality. 
Valgius Eufus was a great favourite of Horace, 2 but only 
a few short isolated passages are extant of his poems. 3 
Quintilian 4 attributes to him a translation of the rhetorical 
precepts of Apollodorus. Seneca 5 mentions him by name : 
Pliny 6 praises his erudition. The testimony borne to his 
transcendent merits as an epic poet, in the Panegyric 
of Messala, need scarcely be trusted, because it is almost 
certain that this piece is spurious. 7 

Varius. 

Of L. Varius Eufus also, who was one of the constant 
guests at Maecenas' table, scarcely anything is known. 
Horace 8 tells us that he was unequalled in epic song, 
when Virgil had as yet only turned his attention to rustic 
poetry. The high praise bestowed upon his Thyestes by 
Quintilian has already been mentioned. To him, together 



1 Epp. iv. 14 ; vii. 4. 2 Sat. I. x ; Od. ii. 9. 

3 Weichert, Poet. Lat. Bell. 4 Lib. iii. i. 18. 

5 Ep. xli. i. 6 H. N". xxv. 2. ? Tib. Op. iv, i. 180. 

s Sat. I. x. 44. 



C. CORNELIUS GALLUS. 305 

with Virgil, we have seen that Horace owed his introduc- 
tion to Augustus, and all three were of the party winch 
accompanied Maecenas to Brundisium. The titles of two 
of his poems are extant, — I. De Morte. II. Panegyric 
on Augustus. Of the former, four fragments are preserved 
by Maerobius., all of which Virgil has deemed worthy 
of imitation. Of the latter, two lines, containing a de- 
licate compliment to Augustus, are extant, which Horace 
has introduced entire into one of his Epistles. 1 The 
passage by no means satisfies modern taste, which has 
been formed by the hexametrical rhythm of Virgil; 
but Seneca praises his style as free from the usual faults 
of Latin declamatory poetry — mere bombast on the one 
hand, and excessive minuteness on the other. Mebuhr 
conjectures that his Thyestes was too declamatory; and 
that, like the later Eoman tragedies of Seneca and others, 
it was not an imitation of the Attic drama, but of the 
degenerate tragedies belonging to the Alexandrian 
period. 

C. Cornelius Gallus (born b.c. 66 or 69). 

Grallus was more distinguished as a general than as a 
poet. Except a single line from one of his elegies, not a 
vestige of his poetry remains ; for the short pieces attri- 
buted to him 2 are undoubtedly not genuine. He owes 
his fame, probably, to the kind verdict of his contempo- 
raries ; whose friendship and amiable affection for each 
other appear never to have been endangered by the 
slightest spark of jealousy. 

Born at Erejus, of low parentage, he was a fellow- 
student in philosophy with Virgil 3 and Varius — a friend- 
ship thus commenced which continued through life. The 
patronage of Asinius Pollio 4 brought him into notice as a 



1 Ep. i. 16. See Schol. 2 Meyer's Anthol. 3 Eel. vi. 64. 

4 Cic. ad Fam. x. 32. 



306 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

poet at the early age of twenty. He was one of the first 
to attach himself to the cause of Octavius ; and, being 
appointed commissioner for allotting the lands to the 
military colonies, he had the opportunity of befriending 
Virgil and the plundered Mantuans. At Actium he 
commanded a brigade, burnt Antony's ships in the 
harbour of Parsetonium, was one of the capturers of 
Cleopatra, and was rewarded by Octavius with being made 
first prefect of Egypt. How so valuable a servant lost 
the Emperor's favour is uncertain. Ovid hints that his 
crime was one of words not of deeds : — 

Linguam nimio non tenuisse mero. 

He was recalled, his property confiscated, and himself 
exiled. He had not strength of mind to bear his fall, 
and he committed suicide in the forty-first or forty-third 
year of his age. 1 

No judgment respecting his merits can be formed 
from the contradictory criticism of the ancients. Ovid 
awards to him the palm among the elegiac poets, 2 and 
Virgil is said to have sung his praises in his fourth 
Georgic, but afterwards to have omitted the passage and 
substituted for it the story of Aristseus ; whilst Quintilian 3 
applies the epithet durior to his versification. Perhaps 
the latter attached too much importance to the grace and 
sweetness of diction, but neglected the beauty of the 
sentiments ; whilst the former might have been too partial 
in his sympathy with a fellow-exile. He was the author 
of four books of elegies, in which, under the feigned 
name of Lycoris, he sings his love for his mistress 
Cytheris. He also translated the Greek poems of Eu- 
phorion. 

> Dion Cass. liii. 23. 2 Trist. iv. 10, 5. 

3 Lib. x. i. 93 ; i, 5, 8. 



mistresses of t1bullus. 307 

Albius Tibullus. 

Tibullus was born of an equestrian family, probably in 
B. c. 54. He was a contemporary of Virgil and Horace ;* 
and like them, during the troubles of the civil wars, suf- 
fered the confiscation of his paternal estate, which was 
situated at Pedum near Tibur. After the conclusion of 
the straggle a portion was restored to him — small, indeed, 
but sufficient to satisfy his moderate wants and contented 
disposition. 

Disinclined, as well by his love of quiet, to the labours 
and perils of a military life, as he was by the tenderness 
and softness of his character to the horrors of war, 
circumstances, nevertheless, forced him involuntarily to 
undertake a campaign. Messala was his patron, to 
whom he was evidently under great obligations. 2 When, 
therefore, he was sent by Octavia to quell an insurrection 
in Aquitania, Tibullus accompanied him. This campaign 
and the successes of Messala furnished the poet with 
subjects for his muse. 3 Tibullus also fully intended to 
continue his services to Messala in the east, during the 
following year ; but illness compelled him to stop at 
Corcyra, whence he returned to Eome. 4 

The mistresses whose beauty, inconstancy, and cruelty 
Tibullus celebrates in his elegies were, unlike those of 
Horace, real persons. Delia's real name is said to have 
been Plautia or Plania; 5 who Nemesis was is not known. 
These are the only two mentioned by himself or alluded 
to by Ovid ; 6 but Horace addresses an ode to him on his 
passion for a mistress whom he names Grlycera. Pro- 
bably he is speaking of one of Tibullus's mistresses under 
a feigned name, in accordance with his habitual practice, 
for the names introduced by him in his poems, generally 
speaking, bear no appearance of reality. They are, with 

1 See Hor. Od. i. 33 ; Ep. i. 4. 2 El. i. 3 El. i. and iv. 

4 El. i. 5 Nieb. Lect. cvii. 6 Amorum iii. 9. 

x 2 



308 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

very few exceptions, suggested by his study of Greek 
lyric poets. Chloris, Lycoris, Neobule, Lydia, Thali- 
archus, Xanthias, Pholoe, are all Greek characters trans- 
lated to Roman scenes, and made to play an artificial 
part in Roman life. Cinara 1 was, perhaps, a real person, 
as Bassus, the Novii, Mawius, and Numida, undoubtedly 
are. Sometimes, when his object is satire, he speaks of 
the subject of his irony under a name somewhat resem- 
bling the real one; as, for example, when he ridicules 
Maecenas under the name of Malthinus, 2 Salvidianus 
Rufus under that of Nasidienus, 3 and lampoons Gratidia 
the sorceress as Canidia. But in the poetry of Tibullus, 
as in that of Catullus and Propertius, the same names are 
found in each of a series of poems. Apuleius 4 asserts 
that the real name of the Lesbia of Catullus was Clodia ; 
that of the Cynthia of Propertius, Hostia, and that she 
was a native of Tivoli. 

The style and tone of thought of Tibullus are, like his 
character, deficient in vigour and manliness, but sweet, 
smooth, polished, tender, and never disfigured by bad 
taste. He does not deserve the censure of Niebuhr, who 
stigmatises him as a " disagreeable poet, because of liis 
doleful and weeping melancholy and sentimentality, 
resulting from misunderstanding the ancient elegies of 
Mimnermus." 5 

After his return from Corcyca, Tibullus passed the 
remainder of his short life in the peaceful retirement of 
his paternal estate. He died young, shortly after Virgil, 
if we may trust to an epigram, ascribed to Domitius 
Marsus, contained in the Latin Anthologia : — * 

Te quoque Virgilio comitem non aequa, Tibulle, 

Mors juvenem campos misit in Elysios, 
Ne foret, aut elegis molles qui fleret amores, 

Aut caneret forti regia bella pede. 



1 Od, iv. 1, 3, 4, 13. ; Ep. i. 7, 27, 14, 33. 2 Sat. I. ii. 

3 Sat. II. viii. 4 Apol. p. 279. 5 Lect.'on R. H. 107. 

Meyer's Anthol. Vet. Lat. Ep. No. 122. 



CRITICISM OF MURKTUS. 309 

The poems commonly ascribed to Tibullus consist of 
tour books, but only two are genuine, and of these, the 
second was published posthumously. Two lines in the 
third book, which fix the date of the poet's birth in the 
consulship of Hirtius and Pansa, 1 have generally been con- 
sidered as spurious, because such a date is inconsistent 
with the rest of the chronology ; but Yoss rejected the 
whole of that book : and there is no question but that 
the spirit and character of the Elegies, as well as the 
harmony of the metre, are very inferior to those of the 
preceding poems. The same inferiority marks the fourth 
also, with the exception of the smaller poems, which bear 
the names of Sulpicia and Corinthus. These, as Niebuhr 
correctly observed, display greater energy and boldness 
than Tibullus possessed, and are the productions of some 
poet much superior to Mm. 

That elegant scholar and judicious critic, Muretus, 2 has 
well attributed to him, as his chief characteristics, sim- 
plicity, and natural and unaffected genius : — " Ilium 
(i. e. Tibullum) judices simplicius scripsisse quae cogitaret ; 
hunc (i. e. Propertium) diligentius cogitasse qua? scriberet. 
In illo plus naturce, in hoc plus curse atque industriaB 
perspicias." 

Sextus Aurelius Propertius. 

Very little is known respecting the life and personal 
history of Propertius beyond the few facts which may be 
gleaned from his poems. He was a native of the border 
country of Umbria, and was probably born not earlier 
than a. u. c. 703, 3 or later than 700. 4 This period will 
sufficiently agree with the statement of Ovid respecting 
their relative ages. 5 His family had not produced any 
distinguished member, but possessed a competent estate. 
Like Virgil and Tibullus, he was a sufferer by the conse- 



1 B. c. 45 ; a. u. c. 709. 2 Schol. in Propert. 3 Clinton. 

4 Niebuhr. 5 Trist. iv. 10, 45. 



310 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

quences of war ; for the establishment of a military colony 
reduced him from comfort to straitened circumstances. 1 

Like most young Eomans of genius and education, he 
was intended for the bar ; 2 but poetry had greater charms 
for him than severe studies, and he became nothing more 
than a literary man. He inhabited a house in the now 
fashionable quarter of the Esquiline, and was on intimate 
terms with Gallus, Ovid, Bassus, and Virgil. Cynthia, 
his amour with whom inspired so large a portion of his 
elegies, was not only a beautiful but an accomplished 
woman. She was his first love ; and it appears to have 
been some time before she yielded to his solicitations, 3 
nor was she even then always faithful to him. 4 She 
could write verses and play upon the lyre, 5 and was a 
graceful dancer. 6 She owed to him, says Martial, her 
immortality; whilst he owed to his love for her the 
inspiration which immortalized himself : — 

Cynthia, facundi carmen juvenile Properti, 
Accepit famam nee minus ilia dedit. 

The date of the poet's death is unknown, but the pro- 
bability is that he died young. 

Although Propertius was a contemporary and friend of 
the Augustan poets, he may be considered as belonging 
to a somewhat different school of poetry. His taste, like 
theirs, was educated by a study of Greek literature ; but 
the Greek poets whose works he took for his model be- 
longed to a later age. Horace, Virgil, and TibuUus 
imitated and tried to rival the Greek classical poets of the 
noblest ages : they transferred into their native tongue 
the ideas of Homer, Pindar, and the old lyric poets. 
Their taste was formed after the purest and most perfect 
models. Propertius, on the other hand, was content 
with a lower flight. He attempted nothing more than to 



1 Prop. IV. i. 128, and ii. 25. 2 Ibid. IV. i. 3 Ibid. II. xiv. 15—18. 
4 Ibid. I. 1, 2 ; x. ii. 16. 5 Ibid. I. ii. 27. 6 Ibid. II. iii. 17. 



STYLE OF PROPERTIUS. 311 

imitate the graceful but feeble strains of the Alexandrian 
poets, and to become a second Callimachus or Philetas. 1 
Roman perseverance in the pursuit of learning, and the 
spirit of investigation in the wide field of Greek litera- 
ture, had raised up this new standard of taste, which was 
by no means an improvement upon that which had been 
hitherto established. 

The imitations of Propertius are too studied and ap- 
parent to permit him to lay claim to great natural genius. 
Nature alone could give the touching tenderness of 
Tibullus or the facility of Ovid — in both of which, not- 
withstanding his grace and elegance, he is deficient. The 
absence of original fancy is concealed by minute atten- 
tion to the outward form of the poetry which he ad- 
mired. His pentameters are often inharmonious, because 
they adopt so continually the Greek rules of construction ; 
awkward Greek idioms, and a studious display of his 
learning, which was undoubtedly great, destroy that 
greatest charm of style, perspicuity. 

According to Quintilian, 2 the critics of his day some- 
what overrated his merits, for they could scarcely decide 
the question of superiority between him and Tibullus. 
This, however, is to be expected in an age of affected 
rhetoric and grammatical pedantry, when nothing was 
considered beautiful in poetry except that which was in 
accordance with the arbitrary rules of cold criticism. 
They appreciated his correctness, and did not miss the 
warm heart of his rival. His poetry is not so polluted 
with indelicacy as that of Ovid, but still it is often sensual 
and licentious. 

It is worthy of remark that the fourth elegy of the third 
book, entitled " Arethusa to Lycotas," deprives Ovid of 
the credit of being the inventor of the elegiac epistle. 



1 Prop. IV. i. 63. 2 Inst. Orat. x. 1. 



312 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

iEMILIUS Macer. 

The poem of iEmilius Macer is only known through 
two verses in the Tristia of Ovid, 1 which state that it 
treated of birds, serpents, and medicinal herbs : — 

Ssepe suas volucres legit mihi grandior sevo 
Quseque necet serpens, quae juvet herba Macer. 

He was born at Yerona, and died in Asia, a.d. 16; 
and the passage already quoted proves that he was older 
than Ovid. 

His poem was a paraphrase or imitation of the Theriaca 
of Nicander — a physician-poet, who flourished in JEtolia 
during the reign of Ptolemy Epiphanes. Quintilian 
couples his name with that of Lucretius ; and awards him 
the praise of elegance, but adds that his style is deficient 
in dignity. 

1 Trist. IV. x. 33. 



( 313 ) 



CHAPTER VIII. 

BIRTH AND EDUCATION OF OVID — HIS RHETORICAL POWERS — 
ANECDOTE RELATED BY SENECA — HIS POETICAL GENIUS — SELF- 
INDULGENT LIFE — POPULARITY — BANISHMENT — PLACE OF HIS 
EXILE— EPISTLES AND OTHER WORKS — GRATIUS FALISCUS— 
PEDO ALBINO V ANUS— AULUS SABINUS — MARCUS MANILIUS. 

Ovidius Naso (BORN B.C. 43). 

Ovid, as he himself states, 1 was born at Sulmo (Sulmone), 
a town of the Peligni (Abrnzzi), ninety miles distant from 
Rome. The year of his birth was that in which the 
consuls Hirtius and Pansa fell in the field of Mntina 
(Modena). His family was equestrian, and had been so 
for some generations. His father lived to the age of 
ninety ; and, as his mother was then alive, it is probable 
that she also attained an advanced age. He had a bro- 
ther exactly twelve months older than himself. Their 
common birthday was the first of the Quinquatria, or 
festival of Minerva (March 20th). 

Whilst still of tender age, the two boys were sent to 
Eome for education, and placed under the care of eminent 
instructors. The elder studied eloquence, and was 
brought up to the bar ; but he died at the early age of 
twenty. Ovid himself also, for a time, studied rhetoric 
under Arellius Fuscus and Porcius Latro, and the results 
of his study are visible in his poems ; 2 for example, in the 
speeches of Ajax and Ulysses. 3 



Trist. iv. 10. * See Cic. Brut. 446. 3 Metam. xiii. 



314 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Seneca has left an interesting account of his rhetorical 
powers. 1 " I remember," he says, " hearing Naso de- 
claim, in the presence of Arellius Fuscus, of whom he 
was a pupil ; for he was an admirer of Latro, although 
his style was different from his own. The style of Ovid 
could at that time be termed nothing else but poetry in 
prose : still he was so diligent as to transfer many of his 
sentiments into his verses. Latro had said — 

Mittamus arma in hostes, et petamus. 

Naso wrote — 

Arma viri fortis medios mittantur in hostes 
Inde jubete peti. 

He borrowed another idea from one of Latro's Suasorian 
orations : — 

Non vides nti immota fax torpeat et exagitata reddat ignes '? 

Ovid's paraphrase of this illustration is — 

Vidi ego jactatas mota face crescere flammas, 
Et rursus, nullo concutiente, mori. 

When he was a student he was thought to declaim 
well." 

On the affecting theme of a husband and wife, who had 
mutually sworn not to survive each other, Seneca asserts 
that he surpassed his master in wit and talent, and was 
only inferior in the arrangement of his topics. He then 
quotes a long passage, in which Ovid analyses the prin- 
ciples of love, with a sldll and ingenuity well worthy of 
one who, as a poet, made love the subject of his song, 
and with a purity of sentiment which, it were to be 
wished, had dignified the sweetness of his verses. Ovid 
preferred suasorice and ethical themes to controversies f for 
all argument was irksome to him. In oratory he was 



Controv. ii. 10. 2 See distinction between these in ch. viii. 



ANECDOTE RELATED BY SENECA. 315 

very careful in the use of words : in his poetry he was 
aware of his faults, but loved them too well to correct 
them. He then adds the following amusing and charac- 
teristic anecdote : — Being once asked by his friends to 
erase three Hues, he consented on condition that he him- 
self should be at liberty to make an exception in favour 
of three. He accordingly wrote down three which he 
wished to preserve ; his friends those which they wished 
to erase. The papers were examined, and both were 
found to contain the same verses. Pedo Albinovanus 
used to say that one of these was — 

Semibovernque virum seniivirunique bovem. 

The other— 

Egelidum Borean, egelidumque Notum. 

Hence it is apparent that judgment was not wanting, 
but the inclination to correct. He defended himself by 
saying that an occasional mole is an improver of beauty. 
The former of these miserable conceits is not now to be 
found in his poems. The latter occurs in the Amoves, 
but it is usually read — 

Et gelidum Borean, egelidumque No turn ; 

or — 

Et gelidum Borean, pnecipitemque Notum. 

The father of Ovid, who took a utilitarian view of life, 
is said to have discouraged the cultivation of his poetical 
talents, and to have stigmatised the service of the Muses 
as barren and unprofitable. Even Homer himself, he was 
wont to say, left no property behind him. Ovid endea- 
voured to comply with his father's wishes, he deserted 
Helicon, and tried to write plain prose. It was all in 
vain ; his words spontaneously flowed into numbers, and 
whatever he tried to say was poetry. His natural genius 
and facility displayed itself when he was quite a boy ; for 
he had not yet put on the toga virilis. When he 



Amor. II. xi. 10. 



316 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

assumed this badge of mature age, it was bordered with a 
broad purple stripe, which marked the patrician order ; 
but being unambitious and indolent, he never took his 
seat in the senate, although he filled several magisterial 
and judicial offices. 

His rank, fortune, and talents enabled him to cultivate 
the society of men of congenial tastes. He became 
acquainted with the best poets of his day. Macer and 
Propertius would recite their compositions to him. Pon- 
ticus and Bassus were guests at his table. He had heard 
the lyrics of Horace read by himself. Virgil he had only 
seen ; and the untimely death of Tibullus prevented him 
from making the acquaintance of that poet. He was ex- 
tremely young when his juvenile poems became very 
popular, and he wrote far more than he published ; for he 
burnt whatever displeased him ; and, when sentenced to 
exile, in disgust he committed the Metamorphoses to the 
flames. 

He himself confesses his natural susceptibility and 
amorous temperament; but claims the credit of never 
having given occasion to any scandal. He was three 
times married. His first wife was unsuitable, and proved 
unworthy of him, and accordingly he divorced her. His 
second he divorced also, although no imputation rested on 
her virtue. From his third, whom, notwithstanding his 
fickleness and infidelity, he sincerely loved, he was only 
separated by exile. She was one of the Fabian family, 
and bore him one daughter. 

Epicurean in his tastes, and a sceptic, if not a disbe- 
liever in a future state, he lived a life of continual self- 
indulgence and intrigue. He was a universal admirer 
and as universal a favourite among the female sex in the 
voluptuous capital ; for the tone of female morals was in 
that age low and depraved, and the women encouraged 
the licentiousness of the men. Although his favourite 
mistress, whom he celebrated under the fictitious name of 



BANISHMENT OF OVID. :* 1 7 

Oorinna, is unknown, and all the conjectures concerning 
her identity are groundless, there is no doubt that she 
was a lady of rank and fortune. 

Ovid was popular as a poet, successful in society, and 
possossod all the enjoyments which wealth can bestow. 
He had a villa and estate in his native Sulmo, a house on 
the Capitoline hill, and suburban gardens celebrated for 
their beauty. At some period of Ins life he travelled 
with Macer into Asia and Sicily ; and, in his exile, recalls 
to mind with sorrowful pleasure the magnificent cities 
of the former, and the sublime scenery and classic haunts 
of the latter. 1 Tins sunny life at length came to an 
end. The last ray of happiness, which he speaks of as 
beaming on him, was the intelligence that his beloved 
daughter Perilla, who was twice married, made him a 
grandfather a second time. When his hair became 
tinged with white, and he had reached his fiftieth year, 
he incurred, by some fault or indiscretion, the anger 
of Augustus, and was banished to Tomi (Tomoswar or 
Baba). 

The cause of his banishment is involved in obscurity. 
It was not unknown at Eome ; but in his exile he refrains 
from alluding to it, except in dark allusions, out of fear 
of giving additional offence to the emperor. 2 He speaks of 
it as an indiscretion (error), not a crime (scelus, /acinus 3 ); as 
something which he had accidentally witnessed, 4 perhaps 
had indiscreetly told — a circumstance which deeply and 
personally affected Augustus, and inflicted a wound which 
he was unwilling to tear open afresh. He hints also that 
he fell a victim to the treachery of friends and domestics, 5 
who enriched themselves by his ruin. 

There have been many conjectures 6 on this difficult 



1 Ep. ex Ponto, ii. 10. 2 Trist. IV. x. 100. 

3 Ibid. IY. x. 90, and III. i. 52. 4 Ibid. I. ii. 107. 

5 Ibid. iv. 10, 101 ; Ep. ex Pont. P. ii. vii. 

6 See Class. Museum, iv. 13. 



318 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

point. Some have imagined an intrigue with the elder 
Julia, the profligate daughter of Augustus ; but this is 
scarcely consistent with the manner in which Ovid himself 
speaks of his fault ; and besides this, Julia was banished 
to Pandataria eight years before. The banishment of the 
younger Julia to Trimerus, about the same time with that 
of Ovid, would make it far more probable that his fall 
was connected with that of this equally profligate princess. 
Tiraboschi supposed that he had surprised one of the 
royal family in some disgraceful act ; and some have even 
imagined that he might have witnessed such conduct on 
the part of the Emperor himself. Dryden believed that 
he accidentally saw Livia in the bath ; and the author of 
the article in the Biographie Universelle, as well as 
Schoell, 1 surmise that he was in some way implicated in 
the fortunes of Agrippa Posthumus, and thus incurred 
the hatred of Livia and Tiberius. 

Whatever the cause may have been, the punishment 
was a cruel one, except for a crime of the deepest dye, 
and would never have been inflicted by the gentle Au- 
gustus so long as he was under the salutary influence of 
Maecenas and his party. But in his old age he submitted 
to the baneful rule of the dark Tiberius and the im- 
placable Livia. Any pretext, therefore, sufficed to remove 
one, who, from some cause or other, had excited their 
enmity. The alleged reason was the immorality of his 
writings ; but they are not more immoral than those of 
Horace ; and, besides, the worst of them had been pub- 
lished ten years before. Nor was the morality of the 
Emperor himself of such a character as to lead him to 
punish so severely a licentious poet in a licentious age. 
The exclusion of his works from the Palatine 2 library was 
a merited and more appropriate visitation. Nevertheless, 
this was made the pretext for a banishment, the misery 



Hist. Abreg. de la Lit. Rom. 2 Trist. III. i. 65. 



SITUATION OF TOMI. 319 

of which was solaced by the empty mockery of the reserv- 
ation of his civil rights. 

Tomi was on the very frontiers of the Eoman empire, 
inhabited by the Getse, who were rude and uncivilized. 
The country itself, a barren and treeless waste, cold, damp, 
and marshy, producing naturally scarcely anything but 
wormwood, and yielding scanty crops to the unskilled 
toil of ignorant cultivators, was rendered still more desolate 
b} T frequent incursions of the neighbouring savage tribes, 
who used poisoned arrows, and offered up as sacrifices 
their prisoners of war. 1 Ovid, who, with all his faults, 
was affectionate and tender-hearted, was torn from all 
the voluptuous blandishments of the capital, from the 
sjmipatliies of congenial spirits, who could appreciate his 
talents, and from the arms of his weeping wife 2 amidst 
the voice of wailing and of prayer, which filled every 
corner of his desolate dwelling. The blow fell suddenly 
upon him like a thunder-clap, 3 and so stupified him, that 
he could make no preparations for his voyage. The 
season of his departure was the depth of winter, and he 
was exposed to some peril by a tempest in the Ionian Grulf. 
The climate of his new abode was as inclement as that of 
Scythia. Not only the Danube, but even the sea near 
its mouth, was for some extent covered with ice : even the 
wine froze into blocks, and was broken in pieces before it 
could be used. He lived in exile only ten years ; constant 
anxiety preyed upon his bodily health ; he suffered lan- 
guor, but no pain ; he loathed all food ; the little that he 
ate would not digest ; sleep failed him \ his body became 
pale and emaciated, and so he died. The Tomitse showed 
their respect by erecting a tomb to his memory. 

In the midst of such a contrast between the present 
and the past, no wonder that his complainings appear 
almost pitiful and unmanly, and his urgent petitions to 



1 Ex Ponto, IV. ix. 82. 2 Trist. I. iii. 8 Ibid. V. 



320 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Augustus couched in too fulsome a strain of adulation. 
No wonder that he painted in the most glowing colours 
the story of his woes and privations. Yet he was desti- 
tute neither of patience nor fortitude : he relied on the 
independence and immortality of genius ; and although 
the enervating effect of a luxurious and easy life and a 
delicate constitution, rendered him a prey to grief, and 
he gradually pined away, still he had strength of mind 
to relieve his sorrows by devotion to the Muse, and he 
suffered with tranquillity and resignation. Poetry was 
his resource during his stormy voyage. Poetry gained 
him the affection and esteem of his new fellow-citizens, 
notwithstanding their barbarism, 1 and procured him the 
honour of a tomb. 

All the extant poems of Ovid, with the exception of 
the Metamorphoses, are elegiac. It was the metre then 
most in vogue. All the minor poets, his contemporaries, 
wrote in it. One of his earliest works is the " Amores," 
a collection of elegies, most of which are addressed to his 
favourite mistress Corinna. Some of them, however, 
were composed subsequently to his Epistles and Art of 
Love. 2 An epigram which is prefixed, states that there 
were originally ixve books, but that the author subse- 
quently reduced them to the present number, three. 
Licentiousness disfigures these annals of his amours ; but 
they teem with the freshness and buoyancy of youth, and 
sparkle with grace and ingenuity. 

The twenty-one Epistolce Heroidum, i. e., Epistles to and 
from Women of the Heroic Age, are a series of love-letters : 
their characteristic feature is passion ; the ardour of which 
is sometimes interfered with by too laboured conceits and 
excessive refinement. They are, in fact, the most pohshed 
efforts of one whose natural indolence often disinclined 
him from expending that time and pains on the work of 



Ex Pont. IV. ix. 97. 2 See II. xviii. 19. 



THE ART OF LOVE. 321 

amending and correcting, which distinguished Virgil. 
Their great merit consists in the remarkable neatness 
with which the sentiments are expressed, and the sweet- 
ness of the versification ; their great defect is want of 
variety. The subject necessarily limited the topics. The 
range of them is confined to laments for the absence of 
the beloved object, the pangs of jealousy, apprehensions 
of inconstancy, expressions of warm affection, and descrip- 
tions of the joys and sorrows of love. 

With the exception of the Metamorphoses, the Epistles 
have been greater favourites than any of the works of 
Ovid. Some were translated by Drayton and Lord Hervey. 
The beautiful translation, by Pope, of the epistle from 
Sappho to Phaon, is familiar to all; and his touching 
picture of the struggle between passion and principle, in 
the letter of Eloisa to Abelard, owes a portion of its 
inspiration to the Epistles of Ovid. 

Love in the days of Ovid had nothing in it chivalrous 
or pure — it was carnal, sensual. The age in which he 
lived was morally polluted, and he was neither better nor 
worse than his contemporaries. Great and noble as was 
the character of the Eoman matron, the charms of an 
accomplished female education were almost as rare as 
at Athens. She had sterling worth; but she had not 
often the power to fascinate those numbers who con- 
sidered woman the minister to the pleasures of man. 
She was wise, self-sacrificing, patriotic, courageous — a 
devoted mother, an affectionate wife — and a man of heroic 
mould valued as she deserved such a partner of his 
fortunes. But those who sought merely the allurements 
of passion looked only for meretricious pleasure and 
sensual enjoyment. Hence grossness is the characteristic 
of Ovid's Art of Love. The instructions contained in 
the first two books which are addressed to men are fit 
only for the seducer. The blandishments in the third 
are suited only to the abandoned of the other sex. 



322 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The Art of Love was followed by the Eemedies of Love 
in one book : " Let him," he says, " who taught you to 
love, teach you also the cure ; one hand shall inflict the 
wound and minister the balm. The earth produces 
noxious and healthful herbs ; the rose is often nearest 
neighbour to the nettle." 1 

His Metamorphoses were just finished, and not yet 
corrected, 2 when his fall took place. When in his despair 
he burnt it, fortunately for the world some copies trans- 
pired. Afterwards he prayed that they might be pre- 
served to remind the readers of the unhappy author. 
The Metamorphoses consist of fifteen books, and contain 
a series of mythological narratives from the earliest 
times to the translation of the soul of Julius Caesar from 
earth to heaven, and his metamorphosis into a star. 
This poem is Ovid's noblest effort : it approaches as near 
to the epic form as is possible with so many naturally un- 
connected episodes. In many parts, especially his de- 
scriptions, we do not merely admire his natural facility 
in making verses, but picturesque truthfulness and force — 
the richest fancy combined with grandeur and dignity. 
Amongst the most beautiful portions may be enumerated 
the story of Phaeton, including the splendid description 
of the palace of the Sun ; 3 the golden age ; 4 the story 
of Pyramus and Thisbe ; 5 the cottage home and the 
rustic habits of Baucis and Philemon, 6 Narcissus at 
the fountain;' the powerfully-sketched picture of the 
cave of Sleep, 8 Daedalus and Icarus, 9 Cephalus and 
Procris, 10 and the soliloquy of Medea. 11 In this poem, 
especially, may be traced that study and learning by 
which the Poman poets made all the treasures of Greek 
literature their own. In fact, a more extensive know- 



3 Eem. Am. 43. 2 Trist. i. vi. 30. 3 Metam. ii i. 

4 Ibid. i. 89. 5 Ibid. iv. 55. « Ibid. viii. 628. 
7 Ibid. iii. 407. 8 Ibid. xi. 592. p Ibid. viii. 152. 
11 Ibid, vii.661, " Ibid. vii. 11. 



THE FASTI, TRISTXA, \M) EPISTLES FROM PONTUS. 323 

ledge of Greek mythology may be derived from it than 
from the Greeks themselves, because the books which 
were the sources of his information are unfortunately 
bo longer extant. 

The " Fasti " is an antiquarian poem on the Eoman 
( talendar. Originally it was intended to have formed twel ve 
books, one for each month of the year, but only the first 
six were completed : — l 

Sex ego Fastorum scripsi totidemque libellos 
Cunique suo finem mense volumen habet. 

It is a beautiful specimen of simple narrative in verse, 
and displays, more than any of his works, his power of 
telling a story, without the slightest effort, in poetry as 
well as prose. As a profound study of Greek mythology 
and poetry had furnished the materials for his Meta- 
morphoses and other poems, so in this he drew principally 
from the legends which had been preserved by the old 
poets and annalists of his own country. 

The five books of the Tristia and the four books of the 
Epistles from Pontus were the outpourings of his sor- 
rowful heart during the gloomy evening of his days. 
Without the brilliancy, the wit, and the genius, which 
beamed forth from his joyous spirit in the time of his 
prosperity, without the graceful and inspired querulous- 
ness of the ancient models, they are, nevertheless, con- 
ceived in the spirit of the Greek elegy — they utter the 
voice of complaining, and deserve the Horatian epithet 
of miserabiles. 2 It was natural to him to give utterance 
to his hope and despair in song : he had sported like a 
gay insect in the sunshine of prosperity. He was too 
fragile, delicate, and effeminate to bear the storm of ad- 
versity — his butterfly spirit was broken; but, with all 
his faults, that broken heart was capable of the tenderest 
emotions, and his letter to his daughter Perilla 3 is full of 



Trist. ii. v. 549 8 Hor. Od. I. 33. 3 Lib. iii. 7. 

Y 2 



3.24 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

purity and sweetness. The carelessness of one who 
would not take the trouble to correct, and who was con- 
scious of his dangerous facility, is compensated for by the 
commiseration which his natural complaints excite, and 
for the powerful descriptions which occasionally enliven 
the monotony inseparable from grief. 

His minor poems consist of an elegiac poem, " Nux/' 
in which a nut-tree bewails its hard fate and the ill- 
treatment which it receives ; a long and bitter satire, 
entitled Ibis, on some enemy, or, perhaps, some faith- 
less friend ; a poem on Cosmetics (Medicamina faciei) j 1 
another on Fishing (Halieutica) ; 2 and an address of con- 
dolence to Livia Augusta. JSTone, however, of these last 
three are universally admitted to be genuine. Other 
works which were the offspring of his prolific genius 
have perished. During his exile he acquired sufficient 
knowledge of the Gretan language to write some poems 
in it ; and these were as popular with the barbarians as 
his Latin works were at Rome. Lastly, he was the 
author of the Medea ; a tragedy of which Quintilian says, 
that it shows of what grand works he was capable, if he 
had been willing to curb instead of giving reins to the 
luxuriance of his genius. 3 Two lines only are extant ; 
but we I can judge of the conception which he formed 
of the character of Medea from the epistle in the 
" Heroides," and her eminently tragic soliloquy in the 
Metamorphoses . 

Ovid was a voluptuary, but not a heartless one. The 
age in which he lived was as immoral as himself, and far 
more gross ; he was, therefore, neither a corrupter nor a 
seducer. His poetry was popular, not only because of 
its beauty, but because it was in exact accordance with 
the spirit of the times. His wit was sometimes contrary 
to good taste, but it was not forced and unnatural. He 



Ar. Am. iii. 205. 2 Plin. H. N. xxxii. 54. 3 In. Or. x. 



GRATIUS AND ALBINOVANUS. 325 

was betrayed into the appearance, not the reality of affect- 
ation, by a luxuriance which required pruning, for which 
he had neither patience nor inclination. He stored 
himself with the learning of the ancients, and caught 
their inspiration; but then* severe taste was to him a 
trammel to which he was too self-willed and self-com- 
placent to submit. The prevalent taste for elegiac poetry 
pointed out the style which was suited to his calibre ; for 
one cannot help feeling that his genius was incapable of 
mastering the gigantic proportions of a true epic, and, 
notwithstanding the favourable criticism of Quintilian, of 
soaring to the sublimity of tragedy. 

GltATIUS FALISCUS. 

The Cynegetica of Gratius, commonly, though without 
any reason, surnamed Faliscus, may claim a place beside 
the Halieutiea of Ovid, on account of its subject, but not 
on the score of genius, poetry, or language. Nothing is 
known respecting this author, except that Ovid speaks of 
him as a contemporary. 1 The poem is heroic, and con- 
sists of 536 lines : its style is hard and prosaic ; it 
describes the weapons and arts of the chase, horses and 
hounds ; but the science is rather Greek than Italian, and 
the information contained in it is principally derived from 
Xenophon. 2 

Pedo Albinovanus. 

Another poet of the Ovidian age was his trusty friend, 
C. Pedo Albinovanus. He was of equestian rank, 3 and, 
unlike most of his contemporaries, an epic poet. 4 Ovid 
in Ins Epistles from Pontus, 5 which are addressed to him, 
applies to him the epithet, " Sidereus," either because he 
had written an astronomical poem, or because his sublime 
language soared into the starry heavens. Martial speaks 

1 £p. ex Pont. iv. 16, 33. 2 See Bernhardy, Gr. 440. 3 Bern. 409. 

4 Quint, x. 1. s Ibid. iv. 16 6. 



326 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

of him as having written epigrams which extend to the 
length of two pages. 1 A fragment of an epic poem, 
describing the voyage of Germanicus related by Tacitus, 
is preserved by Seneca. 2 Three elegies are usually 
ascribed to him ; but their style is that of more modern 
times, and the authority for their genuineness very 
suspicious. 

A. Sabinus. 

Another contemporary of Ovid was A. Sabinus ; and 
all that is known respecting him is derived from two 
passages in the works of the former poet. 3 In one of 
these, 4 he tells us that Sabinus wrote answers to six of 
the epistles of the Heroides. None of these, however, 
are extant. The three which profess to be written by 
him, entitled Ulysses to Penelope, Demophoon to Phyllis, 
and Paris to CEnone, are the work of Angelus Sabinus, 5 
a philologer and poet of the fifteenth century*. 

Two other works are attributed to him by Ovid in a 
passage in which he speaks of his death. 6 One of these, 
entitled Trcezen, was probably an epic poem, of which 
Theseus was the hero ■* the other, Dierum Opus, was a con- 
tinuation of Ovid's Fasti. Other elegiac poets nourished 
at this period, such as Proculus and Montanus ; but their 
poetical talents were of too commonplace a character to 
deserve special mention. They confer no obligation on 
literature, and contribute nothing towards the illustra- 
tion of the literary character of their times. 

M. Manilius. 

The astronomical and astrological poem of Manilius 
furnishes a series of those historical problems, which have 
never yet been satisfactorily solved. The author has 



1 Ep. ii. 77. 2 Ann. ii. 23 ; Suasor. I. 3 Ex Pont. iv. 16, 13. 

4 Amor. ii. 18, 27. 5 Bernhardy, 451. 6 Ep. ex Pont. iv. 16, 13. 

7 Smith's Diet. Glaser. im Rhein. Mus. N. F. i. 437. 



POEM OF MAN1LIUS. 327 

been in turn confounded with every one whom Roman 
records mention as bearing that name, and in all cases 
with equally little reason. No one knows when he 
flourished, where he lived, and of what place he was a 
native. Bentley determined that he was an Asiatic; 
rluot that he was a Carthaginian. Internal evidence 
renders it most probable that he lived in the reign of 
Tiberius ; x and yet neither he nor his poem are ever men- 
tioned by any ancient author. His work was never 
discovered until the beginning of the fifteenth century ; 
probably it had never been published, but only a few 
copies had been made, some of which have been marvel- 
lously preserved. 

The philosophical principles of the poem are those of 
a Stoical Pantheism. As one principle of life pervades 
the whole universe, there is a close connexion between 
tilings celestial and things terrestrial. In consequence of 
this relation, the astrologer can determine the course of 
the latter by observation of the heavenly bodies. Together 
with all the assumptions and absurdities of astrology are 
mingled extensive knowledge of the state of astronomical 
science in his day : gleams of truth shoot like meteors 
athwart the darkness. The subject which he has chosen 
is as unpromising for poetical effect and embellishment 
as that of Lucretius 3 but he does not handle it so suc- 
cessfully : he has neither the boldness of thought, the 
dignity of language, nor the imaginative grandeur which 
marked the old poet-philosopher. The poem is incom- 
plete ; and probably owes some of its roughness and 
obscurity to its never having been corrected for pub- 
lication. 

* Lib. i. 798—897 : iv. 763. 



328 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER IX. 

PROSE WRITERS— INFLUENCE OF CICERO UPON THE LANGUAGE — 
HIS CONVERSE WITH HIS FRIENDS— HIS EARLY LIFE — PLEADS 
HIS FIRST CAUSE —IS QU^STOR, ^DILE, PR^TOR, AND CONSUL 
— HIS EXILE, RETURN, AND PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION — 
HIS VACILLATING CONDUCT — HE DELIVERS HIS PHILIPPICS — 
IS PROSCRIBED AND ASSASSINATED — HIS CHARACTER. 

As oratory gave to Latin prose-writing its elegance and 
dignity, Cicero is not only the representative of the 
flonrishing period of the language, bnt also the instru- 
mental cause of its arriving at perfection. Circumstances 
may have been favourable to his influence. The national 
mind may have been in that stage of progress which 
only required a master-genius to develop it ; but still it 
was he who gave a fixed character to the language, who 
showed his countrymen what eloquence especially was 
in its combination of the precepts of art and the prin- 
ciples of natural beauty ; what the vigour of Latin was, 
and of what elegance and polish it was capable. 

His age was not an age of poetry ; but he paved the 
w r ay for poetry by investing the language with those 
graces which are indispensable to its perfection. He 
freed it from all coarseness and harshness, and accus- 
tomed the educated classes to use language, even in their 
every- day conversation, which never called up gross ideas, 
but was fit for pure and noble sentiments. Before his 
time, Latin was plain-spoken, and therefore vigorous; 
but the penalty which was paid for this was, that it was 
sometimes gross and even indecent. The conversational 



PHILOSOPHICAL CONVERSATION. 329 

language of the upper classes became iu the days of 
Cicero in the highest degree refined ; it admitted scarcely 
an offensive expression. The truth of this assertion is 
evident from those of his writings which are of the most 

familiar character — from his graphic Dialogues, in which 
he describes the circumstances as naturally as if they 
really occurred ; from his Letters to Atticus, in which he 
lavs open the secret thoughts of his heart to his most 
intimate friend, his second self. Cicero purified the 
language morally as well as sestheticallv. It was the 
licentious wantonness of the poets which degraded the 
pleasures of the imagination by pandering to the passions, 
at first in language delicately veiled, and then by open 
and disgusting sensuality. 

It is difficult for us, perhaps, to whom religion comes 
under the aspect of revelation separate from philosophy, 
and who consider the philosophical investigation of moral 
subjects as different from the religious view of morals, to 
form an adequate conception of the pure and almost holy 
nature of the conversations of Cicero and his distin- 
guished contemporaries. To them philosophy was the 
contemplation of the nature and attributes of the Supreme 
Being. The metaphysical analysis of the internal nature 
of man was the study of immortality and the evidence for 
another life. Cato, for example, read the Phaxlo of 
Plato in his last moments in the same serious spirit in 
which the Christian would read the words of inspiration. 
The study of ethics was that of the sanctions with which 
God has supported duty and enlightened the conscience. 
They were the highest subjects with which the mind of 
man could be conversant. For men to meet together, as 
was the habitual practice of Cicero and his friends, and 
pa.ss their leisure hours in such discussions, was the same 
a- if Christians were to make the great truths of the 
Gospel the subjects of social converse. 

Again, if we examine the character of their lighter 



330 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

conversations when they turned from philosophy to 
literature, — it was not mere gossip on the popular litera- 
ture of the day — it was not even confined to works written 
in their native tongue — it embraced the whole field of 
the literature of a foreign nation. They talked of poets, 
orators, philosophers, and historians, who were ancients 
to them as they are to us. They did not then think the 
subject of a foreign and ancient literature dull or pedantic. 
They did not consider it necessary that conversation 
should be trifling or frivolous in order to be entertaining. 

Nor was the influence which Cicero exercised on the 
literature of his day merely extensive, but it was per- 
manent. The great men of whom he was the leader 
and guide caught his spirit. His influence survived 
until external political causes destroyed eloquence, and 
its place was supplied by a cold and formal rhetoric : it 
was felt almost until the language was corrupted by the 
admixture of barbarisms. It may be discerned in the 
soldier-like plainness of Caesar, in the Herodotean narrative 
of Livy, and its sweetness without its difluseness occa- 
sionally adorns the reflective pages of Tacitus. 

It is difficult in a limited space to do justice to Cicero, 
even as a literary man : such was his versatility of 
genius, such his indefatigable industry, so vast the range 
of subjects which he touched and adorned. Of course, 
therefore, it is impossible to do more than rapidly glance 
at the leading events of his political career, or at his 
public character, since his history is, in fact, a history of 
his stirring and critical times. 

M. Tullius Cicero (born b.c. 106). 

On the banks of the noiseless and gently-flowing 1 Liris 
(Garigliano), near Arpinum, the birthplace of Marius, 2 



1 Hor. Od. I. xxxi. 

2 Cicero, notwithstanding his opposite politics, admired Marius, to whom 
he was distantly related, and thought it an honour to have been born near 



BABLT LUI OF CICERO. 331 

lived a Roman knight named M. Tullius Cicero. A com- 
petent hereditary estate enabled him to devote his time 
to literary pursuits. He had two sons : the elder, who 
bore his lather's name, was born January 3rd, B.C. 106. 
The other, Quintus, was about four years younger. As 
both, and Marcus especially, displayed quick talents and 
a lively disposition, and gave promise of inheriting their 
lather's taste for learning, he migrated to Rome, when 
Marcos was about fourteen years of age. The boys 
were educated with their cousins, the young Aculei. 1 
Q. xElius 2 taught them grammar ; learned Greeks in- 
structed them in philosophy ; and the poet Archias exer- 
cised them in the technical rules of verse, although he 
did not succeed in giving them the inspiration of poetry. 
Qiiintus prided himself on his poetical skill ; and a poem 
by him, on the twelve zodiacal signs, is still extant. 3 
Cicero also had in his boyhood some poetical taste ; and 
there is great elegance in the translations from the Greek 
which we meet with in his works. He wrote a poem 
in hexameters, entitled " Pontius Glaucus," as a sort of 
juvenile exercise, which was extant in the time of Plu- 
tarch ; and also one when he was a young man, in praise 
of Marius. 

After assuming the toga virilis at sixteen years of age, 
M. T. Cicero attended the forum diligently ; and, by care- 
fully exercising liimself in composition, made the elo- 
quence of the celebrated orators whom he heard his own, 
whilst from the lectures and advice of Q. Mucius Scsevola, 
he acquired the principles of Roman jurisprudence. 

He served but little in the armies of his country : his 



Arpimim. He quotes a saying of Pompey's (Cic. de Leg. ii. 3), that Ar- 
pinum had produced two citizens who had preserved Italy. Valerius 
Maxinms thinks that Arpinum, in this respect, enjoyed a singular 
privilege : — Conspicuse felicitatis Arpinum unicum, sive litterarum glorio- 
Bissimum contemptorem, sive abundantissimum fontem intueri velis. 
1 De Orat. ii. 1. 2 Brut. 56. 3 Meyer, Anthol. Rom. 66. 



332 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

only campaign 1 was made under the father of Pompey 
the Great in the Social war. During the remainder of 
this period, Molo, the Bliodian rhetorician, instructed 
him in oratory, whilst Diodotus the Stoic, Phsedrus the 
Epicurean, and Philo, who had presided over the New 
Academy at Athens, were his masters in philosophy. 
The various schools, the principles of which he thus 
imbibed, led to the eclecticism which characterises his 
pliilosophical creed. The bloody era of the Marian 
and Sullan war was passed by him in study : he did not 
interfere in politics, and the fruits of his retirement are 
extant in the treatise de Inventione Rhetorica. 

At twenty-five, he pleaded his first cause, 2 and in the 
following year defended S. Eoscius of Ameria ; but his 
constitution was not strong enough to bear great exertion. 
His friends, therefore, induced him to travel, and he de- 
termined to pass some time at Athens. 3 There was also 
another reason for this recommendation. His comageous 
defence of Eoscius had provoked the enmity of Chry- 
sogonus, a creature of Sulla, and it was therefore dan- 
gerous for him to remain at Eome. He was accompanied 
by his brother Quintus, 4 and found Pomponius Atticus 
residing there, who afterwards became his most intimate 
friend. Prom Athens he travelled to Asia and Ehodes, 
employing his time in the cultivation of oratory, his 
principal study at Athens having been philosophy. Prom 
Asia he returned to Eome 5 with improved health and 
invigorated constitution; where he found a powerful 
rival as an orator, in Hortensius, who was then at the 
zenith of his popularity. 

As soon as he was old enough, 6 he was elected quaestor, 
and the province of Sicily was allotted to him. In the 
exercise of this office, the unusual mildness and integrity 



b. c. 89. 2 Pro Quint, b. c. 81. 3 b. c. 79. 4 De Fin. 5, 1. 

5 b. c. 77. 6 b.c. 76; set. 31. 



CICERO 4BDILE, PR/ETOR, AND CONSUL. 333 

of bis administration endeared him to the provincials; 
whilst the judgment with which he regulated the supplies 
of corn from this granary of Kome, gained him equal 
credit with his fellow-countrymen. It was during his 
stay in Sicily that his love of antiquarianism was gratified 
by the discovery of the tomb of Archimedes. 1 On his 
return home a he resumed his forensic practice ; and, in 
B.C. 70, was the champion of his old friends the Sicilians, 
and impeached Verres, who had been prsetor of Syracuse, 
for oppression and maladministration. In the following 
year 8 he was elected curule sedile by a triumphant 
majority. In the celebration of the games which be- 
longed to the province of this magistrate, he exhibited 
great prudence by avoiding the lavish expenditure in 
which so many were accustomed to indulge, whilst, at 
the same time, no one could accuse him of meanness and 
illiberality. 

In the year B.C. 67, he obtained the praBtorship, and, 
notwithstanding the judicial duties of his office, defended 
Omentitis. Hitherto his speeches had been entirely of 
the judicial kind. He now for the first time distinguished 
himself as a deliberative orator, and supported the 
Manilian law, which conferred upon Pompey, to the dis- 
comfiture of the aristocratic party, the command in chief 
of the Mithridatic war. 

The great object of his ambition now was the consul- 
ship, wdiich seemed almost inaccessible to a new man. 
As all difficulties and prejudices were on the side of the 
aristocratic party, his only hope of surmounting them 
was by warmly espousing the cause of the people. 

Catiline and C. Antonius, who were his principal com- 
petitors, formed a coalition, and were supported by Caesar 
and Crassus ; but the influence of Pompey and the popular 
party prevailed, and Cicero and Antony were elected. 

1 T. Q. v. 3. 2 B. c. 74. 8 b. c. 69. 



334 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

He entered upon his office January 1, b.c. 63. At 
this period, perhaps, the moral qualities of his character 
are the highest, and his genius shines forth with the 
brightest splendour. 

The conspiracy of Catiline was the great event of his 
consulship : a plot which its historian does not hesitate to 
dignify with the title of a war. Yet this war was 
crushed in an unparalleled short space of time ; and a 
splendid triumph was gained over so formidable an 
enemy, by one who wore the peaceful toga, not the 
habiliments of a general. The prudence and tact of the 
civilian did as good service as the courage and decision of 
the soldier. The applause and gratitude of his fellow- 
citizens were unbounded, and all united in hailing him 
the father of his country. One act alone laid him open 
to attack, and in fact eventually caused his ruin. There 
is no doubt that it was unconstitutional, although under 
the circumstances it was defensible, perhaps scarcely to 
be avoided. This act was the execution of Lentulus, 
Cethegus, and the other ringleaders, without sentence 
being passed upon them by the comitia. The senate, 
seeing that the danger was imminent, had invested Cicero 
and his colleague with power to do all that the exigencies 
of the State might require (videre ne quid resjjublica detri- 
ment caperet) ; and although it was Cicero who recom- 
mended the measure and argued in its favour, it was the 
senate who pronounced the sentence, and assumed that, as 
traitors, the conspirators had forfeited their rights as 
citizens. 

The grateful people saw this clearly ; and when MeteHus 
Celer, one of the tribunes, would have prevented Cicero 
from giving an account of his administration at the close 
of the consular year, he swore that he had saved his 
country, and his oath was confirmed by the acclamations 
of the multitude. This was a great triumph ; and in 
sadder times he looked back to it with a justifiable self- 



ACQUITTAL OF CLODIU8. 335 

complacency. 1 He now, as though his mission was 
accomplished, refused all public dignities except that of a 
senator : but lie did not thus escape peril ; he soon exposed 
himself to the implacable vengeance of a powerful and 
unscrupulous enemy. The infamous P. Clodius Pulcher 
intruded himself hi female attire into the rites of 
the Bona Dea, which were celebrated in the house of 
Csesar. Suspicion fell upon Caesar's wife, and a divorce 
was the consequence. 2 Clodius was brought to trial 
on the charge of sacrilege, and pleaded an alibi. Cicero, 
however, proved his presence in Borne on the very 
da}' on which the accused asserted that he was at Inter- 
amnum. 

Although the guilt of Clodius was fully established, 
his influence over the corrupt Eoman judices was power- 
ful enough to procure an acquittal. Henceforward he 
never could forgive Cicero, and determined to work his 
ruin. He caused himself to be adopted in a plebeian 
family ; and thus becoming qualified for the tribunate was 
ejected to that magistracy, B.C. 59. No sooner was he 
appointed, than he proposed a bill for the outlawry of 
any one who had caused the execution of a citizen with- 
out trial. Cicero at once saw that this blow was aimed 
against liimself. He had disgusted Caesar by his po- 
litical coquetry ; the false and selfish Pompey refused to 
aid Mm in his trouble ; and, spirit-broken, he fled to Brun- 
disium, 3 and thence to Thessalonica. He had an inter- 
view with Pompey before his flight, but it led to no 
results. 4 He had sworn to help him as long as he felt 
that there was danger lest he should join Caesar's party ; 
but when he saw that his foes were successful, he de- 
serted him. 

In his absence his exile was decreed, and his town and 
country houses given up to plunder. It cannot be denied 



In Pis. iii. ; ad Fam. v. 2. 2 b. c. 61. 3 b. c. 58. 4 Ad Att. x. 4. 



33*6 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

that during his banishment he exhibited weakness and 
pusillanimity : his reverses had such an effect upon his 
mind that he was even supposed to be mad. 1 His great 
fault was vanity, of which defect he was himself conscious, 
and confessed it ; 2 and disappointed vanity was the cause 
of his affliction. He could bear anything better than the 
loss of popular applause ; and on this occasion, more than 
any other, he gave grounds for the assertion, that " he 
bore none of his calamities like a man, except his death." 
Rome, however, could not forget her preserver ; and in 
the following year he was recalled, and entered Eome 
in triumph, in the midst of the loud plaudits of the 
assembled people. 3 Still, however, he was obliged to 
secure the prosperity which he had recovered by political 
tergiversation. The measures of the triumvirate, which 
he had formerly attacked with the utmost virulence, he 
did not hesitate now to approve and defend. 

After his return 4 he was appointed to a seat in the 
College of Augurs ; a dignity which he had anxiously 
coveted before his exile, and to obtain which, he had 
offered almost any terms to Caesar and Pompey. 5 The 
following year, much against his will, the province of 
Cilicia was assigned to him. Strictly did the accuser of 
Yerres act up to the high and honourable principles 
which he professed. His was a model administration : a 
stop was put to corruption, wrongs were redressed, jus- 
tice impartially administered. Those great occasions on 
which he was compelled to act on his own responsibility, 
and to listen to the dictates of his beautiful soul, " seine 
schone seele, ,,% his pure, honest, and incorruptible heart, 
are the bright points in Cicero's career. The emergency 
of the occasion overcame his constitutional timidity. 

In the year B.C. 49, he returned to Rome, and finding 

1 Ad Fam. x. iv. 4 ; ad Att. iii. 13. 2 Pro Planco, 26. 

3 In Pis. xxii. ; Post red. xv. 4 B. c. 53. 5 Att. ii. 5. 

6 Niebuhr. 



VACILLATING CONDUCT OF CICERO. 337 

himself in a position in which he conld calmly observe 
the current of affairs, and determine unbiassed what part 
he should take in them, or whether it was his duty to 
take any part at all, his weak, wavering, vacillating 
temper, again got the mastery over him. He would not 
do anything dishonest, but he was not chivalrous enough 
to spurn at once that which was dishonourable. Caesar 
and Pompey were now at open war, and he could not 
make up his mind which to join. 1 He felt, probably, 
that the energy, ability, and firmness of Caesar, would be 
crowned with success ; and yet his friends, his party, and 
Iris own heart were with Pompey, and he dreaded the 
scorn which would be heaped upon him if he forsook his 
political opinions. His were not the stern, unyielding 
principles of a Cato ; but the fear of what men would say 
of him made him anxious and miserable. The struggle 
was a long one between caution and honour, but at length 
honour overcame caution. He made his decision, and 
went to the camp of Pompey ; but he could never rally 
his spirits, or feel sanguine as to the result. He im- 
mediately saw that Pharsalia decided the question for 
ever, and consequently hastened to Brundisium, where he 
awaited the return of the conqueror. It was a long time 
to remain in suspense ; but at last the generous Caesar 
relieved him from it by a full and free pardon. 

And now again his character rose higher, and his good 
qualities had room to display themselves. There were 
no longer equally -balanced parties to revive the discord 
which formerly distracted his mind, nor were the circum- 
stances of the times such as to demand his active inter- 
ference in the cause of his country ; but he was as great 
in the exercise of his contemplative faculties as he had 
been in the brightest period of his political life. The 
same faults may, perhaps, be discerned in his philosophical 



1 See Letters to Att. j'assim. 



338 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

speculations : the same indecision which rendered him in- 
capable of being a statesman or a patriot caused him to 
adopt in philosophy a sceptical eclecticism. Truth was 
to him as variable as political honesty ; but he is always 
the advocate and supporter of resignation, and fortitude, 
and purity, and virtue. 

He had hitherto suffered as a public man : he was now 
bowed down by domestic affliction. A quarrel with his 
wife Terentia ended in a divorce i 1 such was the facility 
with which at Eome the nuptial tie could be severed. 
His second wife was his own ward — a young lady of large 
fortune ; but disparity of years and temper prevented this 
connexion from lasting long. In B.C. 45 he lost his 
daughter Tullia. The blow was overwhelming : he 
sought in vain to soothe his grief in the woody solitudes 
of his maritime villa at Astura, and it was long before 
the bereaved father found consolation in philosophy. 

The political crisis which ensued upon the assassination 
of Csesar alarmed him for his own personal safety, he, 
therefore, meditated a voyage to Greece : but being wind- 
bound at Ehegium, the hopes of an accommodation be- 
tween Antony and the senate (a hope destined not to be 
realized) induced him to return. Antony now left Rome, 
and Cicero delivered that torrent of indignant and elo- 
quent invective — his twelve Philippic orations. 2 He was 
again the popular idol — crowds of applauding and admir- 
ing fellow-citizens attended him to the Forum in a kind 
of triumphant procession, as they had on his return from 
exile. But soon the second triumviate was formed. 
Each member readily gave up friends to satisfy the ven- 
geance of his colleagues, and Octavius sacrificed Cicero. 

The story of his death is a brief and sad one. He was 
enjoying the literary retirement of his Tusculan villa 
when his friends warned him of his approaching fate. 

1 B. c. 46. 2 B. c. 43. 



DEATH OF CTf'F.RO. 339 

1 1 e was too great a philosopher to fear death ; but too high- 
principled and resigned to the Divine will to commit sui- 
cide. Still he scarcely thought life worth preserving : " I 
will die," he said, " in my fatherland, which I have so often 
saved." However, at the entreaty of his brother, to whom 
he was affectionately attached, he endeavoured to escape. 
He first went across the country to Astura, and there em- 
barked. The weather was tempestuous, and as he suffered 
much from sea-sickness, he again landed at Graeta. A 
treacherous freedman betrayed him, and as he was being 
carried in a litter he was overtaken by his pursuers. He 
would not permit Lis attendants to make any resistance ; 
but patiently and courageously submitted to the sword, of 
the assassins, who cut off his head and hands and carried 
them to Antony. A savage joy sparkled in the eyes of 
the triumvir at the sight of these bloody trophies. His 
wife, Fulvia, gloated with inhuman delight upon the 
pallid features, and in petty spite pierced with a needle 
that once eloquent tongue. The head and hands were 
fixed upon the rostrum which had so often witnessed his 
unequalled eloquence. All that passed by bewailed his 
death, and gave vent to their affectionate feelings. 

Although it is impossible to be blind to the numerous 
faults of Cicero, few men have been more maligned and 
misrepresented, and the judgment of antiquity has been, 
upon the whole, generally unfavourable. He was vain, 
vacillating, inconstant, constitutionally timid, and the 
victim of a morbid sensibility ; but he was candid, truth- 
ful, just, generous, pure-minded, and warm-hearted. His 
amiability, acted upon by timidity, led him to set too high 
a value on public esteem and favour ; and this weakened 
his moral sense and his instinctive love of virtue. That 
he possessed heroism is proved by his defence of Eoscius, 
although the favourite of the terrible Sulla was his adver- 
sary. He was not entirely destitute of decision, or he 
would not so promptly have expressed his approbation of 

/ 2 



340 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Caesar's assassins as tyrannicides. He had resolution to 
strive against his over-sensitiveness, and wisdom to see that 
mental occupation was its best remedy ; for in the midst of 
the distractions and anxieties of that eventful and critical 
year which preceded the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa an 
almost incredible number of works proceeded from his pen. 1 

There are many circumstances to account for his poli- 
tical inconsistency and indecision. He had an early pre- 
dilection for the aristocratic party ; but he saw that they 
were narrow-minded and behind their age. All the 
patricians, except Sulla and his small party, were on the 
popular side. He was proud of his connexion with 
Marius ; and his friend Sulpicius Rufus, whom he greatly 
admired, joined the Marians. For these reasons, Cicero 
was inconsistent as a politician. Again, during periods 
of revolutionary turbulence, moderate men are detested 
by both sides ; and yet it was impossible for a philosophic 
temper, which could calmly and dispassionately weigh the 
merits and demerits of both, to sympathise warmly with 
either. Cicero saw that both were wrong : he was too 
temperate to approve, too honest to pretend a zeal which 
he did not feel, and, therefore, he was undecided. 

Again, having a large benevolence, and a firm faith in 
virtue, he was unconscious of guile himself, and thought 
no evil of others. He therefore mistook flattery for sin- 
cerity, and compliments for kindness. He was vain • but 
vanity is a weakness not inconsistent with great minds, 
and in the case of Cicero it was fed by the unanimous 
voice of public approbation. 

As an advocate his delight was to defend, not to 
accuse. 2 In three only of his twenty-four orations did 
he undertake the office of an accuser. 

Gentle, sympathising, and affectionate, he lived as a 
patriot and died as a philosopher. 



1 He wrote during that year the Be Officiis, Be Bivinatione, Be Fa to, 
Topica, and the lost treatise Be Gloria, besides a vast number of Letters. 

2 Pro Mursena, 3. 



( 841 ) 



CHAPTER X. 

CICERO NO HISTORIAN — HIS ORATORICAL STYLE DEFENDED — ITS 
PRINCIPAL CHARM— OBSERVATIONS ON HIS FORENSIC ORATIONS 
— HIS ORATORY ESSENTIALLY JUDICIAL — POLITICAL ORATIONS 
—RHETORICAL TREATISES — THE OBJECT OF HIS PHILOSOPHICAL 
WORKS— CHARACTERISTICS OF ROMAN PHILOSOPHICAL LITERA- 
TURE—PHILOSOPHY OF CICERO — HIS POLITICAL WORKS — 
LETTERS — HIS CORRESPONDENTS — VARRO. 

Such were the life and character of Cicero. The place 
which he occupies in a history of Eoman literature is that 
of an orator and philosopher. It has been already stated 
that he had some taste for poetry : in fact, without 
imagination he could scarcely have been so eminent as 
an orator ; but though the power which he wielded over 
prose was irresistible, he had not fancy enough to give 
a poetical character to the language. 

Nor had he, notwithstanding the versatility of his 
talents, any taste for historical investigation. He de- 
lighted to read the Greek historians, for the same purpose 
for which he studied the Attic orators, merely as an 
instrument of intellectual cultivation ; but he was igno- 
rant of Eoman history, because he took no interest in 
original research. His countrymen 1 expected from him 
an historical work, but he was unfit for the task. It is 
plain from his " Republic" how little he knew as an 
antiquarian. 

The greatest praise of an orator's style is to say that 
he was successful. The end and object of oratory is to 



Ue Leg., introduction. 



342 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

convince and persuade — to rivet trie attention of tlie 
hearer, and to gain a mastery over the minds of men. 
If, therefore, any who study the speeches of Cicero in the 
closet find faults in his style, they must remember that 
the very faults themselves were suited to the object 
which he was carrying into execution. During the 
process of raising the public taste to the highest 
standard, he carried his hearers with him: he was not 
too much in advance ; he did not aim his shafts too high ; 
they hit the head and heart. Senate, judges, people 
understood his arguments, and felt his passionate appeals. 
Compared with the dignified energy and majestic vigour 
of the Athenian orator, the Asiatic exuberance of some 
of his orations may be fatiguing to the sober and chas- 
tened taste of the modern classical scholar ; but in order 
to form *a just appreciation, he must transport himself 
mentally to the excitements of the thronged Forum — to 
the senate composed, not of aged, venerable men, but 
statesmen and warriors in the prime of life, maddened 
with the party spirit of revolutionary times — to the 
presence of the jury of judices, as numerous as a deli- 
berative assembly, whose office was not merely calmly to 
give their verdict of guilty or not guilty, but who were 
invested as representatives of the sovereign people with 
the prerogative of pardoning or condemning. 

Viewed in this light, his most florid passages will 
appear free from affectation — the natural flow of a speaker 
carried away with the torrent of his enthusiasm. The 
melodious rise and fall of his periods are not the result 
of studied effect, but of a true and musical ear. Un- 
doubtedly, amongst his earlier orations are to be found 
passages somewhat too declamatory and inconsistent with 
the principles which he afterwards laid down when his 
taste was more matured, and when he undertook to write 
scientifically on the theory of eloquence. Nor must it be 
concealed that some of the staid and stern Eomans of his 



THE CIIAHM OF CICERONIAN ORATORY. 343 

own days were daring enough, notwithstanding his 
popularity and success, to find the same fault with him. 
" Suorum temporum homines," says Quintihan, "in- 
sere audebant eum ut tumidiorem et Asianum 1 et 
redundantem et in repetitionibus nimium et in salibus 
aliquando frigidum et in compositione fractum et ex- 
sultantem et pene viro molliorem." 

But it is not only the brilliance and variety of ex- 
pression, and the finely-modulated periods, which con- 
stituted the principal charm of Ciceronian oratory, and 
rendered it so effective. Its effectiveness was mainly 
owing to the great orator's knowledge of the human 
heart, and of the national peculiarities of his countrymen. 
Its charm was owing to his extensive acquaintance with 
the stores of literature and philosophy, which his sprightly 
wit moulded at will, to the varied learning which his 
unpedantic mind made so pleasant and popular, to his 
fund of illustration at once interesting and convincing. 
Even if his knowledge, because it spread over so wide a 
surface, was superficial, in this case profoundness was 
unnecessary. 

In a w T ork like the present it is only possible to devote 
a few brief observations to the most important of his 
numerous orations, in which, according to the criticism of 
Quintihan, he combined the force of Demosthenes, the 
copiousness of Plato, and ihe elegance of Isocrates. 
Knowledge of law, far superior to that possessed by the 



1 Poverty and barrenness were most probably instrumental in producing 
the diffuseness and exuberance of the Asiatic and Ehodian schools. Their 
literature and philosophy were deficient in matter, and they sought to 
hide this defect by the external ornaments of language. For a long time 
Athens, strong in her pure classic taste, successfully resisted this influ- 
ence ; and in the time of Cicero the tastes of the two schools were in 
direct opposition. But the flowers of rhetoric are captivating : another 
generation saw the supremacy of rhetoric at Rome ; and the days of Petro- 
nius Arbiter (Satyr, book ii.) witnessed the migration of Asiatic taste to 
Athens. 



344 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

great orators of the day, 1 distinguishes his earliest extant 
oration, the defence of P. Quinctius. 2 Hortensius was 
the defendant's counsel. Nsevius, the defendant, who 
had unjustly possessed himself of the property of the 
plaintiff's deceased brother, was a deserter from the 
Marians, and therefore a protege of Sylla ; but, notwith- 
standing these disadvantages, Cicero gained his cause. 
In the masterly defence of S. Poscius, 3 Cicero again 
defied Sulla. His client was accused of parricide : there 
was not a shadow of proof, and Cicero saved the life of an 
innocent man. The noble enthusiasm with which he 
inveighs against tyranny in this oration strikingly con- 
trasts with the language, full of sweetness, in which he 
describes Eoman rural life. The passage on parricide was 
too glowing and Asiatic for the taste of his maturer 
years, and he did not hesitate to make it the subject of 
severe criticism. 4 Passing over speeches of less interest, 
we come to the six celebrated Verrian orations. Of these 
chefs-d'oeuvre the first only was delivered. 5 The others 
were merely published; for the voluntary exile of the 
criminal rendered further pleading unnecessary. The 
first is entitled " Divhiatio" i. e., an inquiry as to who 
should have the right of prosecuting : Csecilius, who had 
been qusestor to the accused, claimed this privilege, 
wishing to make the suit a friendly one, and thus quash 
the proceedings. Nothing can surpass the ironical and 
sarcastic exposure of this fraudulent attempt to defeat the 
ends of justice. The noble passages in the succeeding 
orations of the series are well known ; the sketch of the 
wicked proconsul's antecedent career ; the graceful eulogy 



1 Cicero tells us (de Orat. i. 57, 58) that Galba, Antony, and Sulpicius 
were ignorant of jurisprudence ; that the chief requisites were elegance, 
wit, pathos, &c. For legal knowledge they trusted to jurisconsults. In the 
oration pro Murcena, even he himself sneers at a technical knowledge of 
law. 

2 Delivered b. c. 81. 3 b. c. 80. 4 De Orat. 5 b. c. 70. 



PRINCIPAL FORENSIC ORATIONS. 345 

of that province, in the welfare of which Cicero himself 
felt so warm an interest ; the tasteful description of the 
statues and antiquities which tempted the more than 
Roman cupidity of Verres ; the interesting history of 
ancient art which accompanies it ; the burst of pathetic 
indignation with which he paints the horrible tortures to 
which not only the provincials, but even Eoman citizens, 
were exposed. Transports of joy pervaded the whole of 
Sicily at Cicero's success j and the Sicilians caused a medal 
to be struck with this inscription — " Prostrato Verre 
Trixacria." The oration for Fonteius 1 is a skilful 
defence of an unpopular governor; that in defence of 
Cluentius 2 is one of the most remarkable causes celebres 
of antiquity ; and the complicated scene of villany which 
Cicero's forcible and soul-harrowing language paints, 
makes one shudder with horror, whilst we are struck 
with a(hriiration at the clearness of intellect with which 
he unravels the web of guilt woven by Oppianicus and 
Sassia. This remarkable oration has been analysed by 
Dr. Blair. 3 

Again passing over other forensic orations we come to 
that on which he had evidently expended all his resources 
of art, taste, and skill, — the speech for the poet Archias. 4 
If possible it is even too elaborate and polished for so 
graceful a theme. Although the object of the advocate 
was simply to establish the right of his client to Eoman 
citizenship, the genius of the poet of Antioch furnished an 
opportunity not to be neglected for digressing into the 
fields of literature, and for pronouncing a truly academical 
eulogium on poetry. It is satisfactory to the admirers of 
Cicero to find that the attack which has been made on the 
genuineness of this pleasing oration is groundless and 
unwarrantable . 5 

1 b. c. 69. 2 b. c. 66. 3 Belles Lettres, Lect. xxviii. 

4 b. c. 61. 5 Schroter. Lips. 1818. 



346 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The oration pro Ccelio 1 is the most entertaining in the 
whole collection. It contains a rich fund of anecdote, 
seasoned with witty observations ; a knowledge of human 
nature illustrated in a piquant and humorous style, 
expressed in a tone of the most gentlemanlike yet playful 
eloquence, and interspersed with passages of great beauty. 
It presents a marked contrast to the coarse personal 
abuse which defaces the otherwise powerful invective 
against L. Piso, which was delivered in the following 
year. 2 

The list, though many more marvellous specimens are 
omitted, must be closed with the oration in defence of 
T. Annius Milo. On this occasion Cicero lost his wonted 
self-possession. When the court opened, Pompey was 
presiding on the bench, and he had caused the Forum to 
be occupied with soldiers. The sight, added, perhaps, to 
the consciousness that he was advocating a bad cause, 
struck Cicero with alarm ; his voice trembled, his tongue 
refused to give utterance to the conceptions which he had 
formed. The judges were unmoved ; and Milo remained 
in his self-imposed exile at Marseilles. When Cicero left 
the court his courage and calmness returned. He penned 
the oration which is now extant. He had little or no 
proof or evidence to offer, and, therefore, as an argu- 
mentative work, it is unconvincing ; but for force, pathos, 
and the externals of eloquence, it deserves to be reckoned 
amongst his most wonderful efforts. When the exiled 
Milo read it, he is said to have exclaimed, " 0, Cicero, if 
you had pleaded so, I should not be eating such capital 
fish here !" The author himself and his contemporaries 
thought this his finest oration ; probably its deficiencies 
were concealed by its eloquence and ingenuity. It 
appears that the oration which he actually delivered was 
taken down in writing by reporters, and was extant in 



B.C. 56. 2 b. c. 55. 






POLITICAL ORATIONS. 347 

the time of Asconius Pedianus, tlie most ancient com- 
mentator on Cicero's orations. 1 Its feebleness proved the 
correctness of the judgment of antiquity. 

The oratory of Cicero was essentially judicial : he was 
himself conscious that his talents lay in that direction, 
and he saw that in that field was the best opportunity for 
displaying oratorical power. Even his political orations 
are rather judicial than deliberative. He was not born 
for a politician. He possessed not that analytical cha- 
racter of mind which penetrates into the remote causes of 
human action, nor the synthetical power which enables a 
man to follow them out to their farthest consequences : 
he had not that comprehensive grasp of mind which can 
dismiss at once all points of minor importance and useless 
speculation, and, seizing all the salient points, can bring 
them to bear together upon questions of practical expe- 
diency. Of the three qualities necessary for a statesman 
he possessed only two, honesty and patriotism : he had 
not political wisdom. 

Hence, in the finest specimens of his political 
harangues, his Catilinarians and Philippics, and that in 
support of the Manilian law, we look in vain for the 
calm practical weighing of the subject which is necessary 
in addressing a deliberative assembly. This was not the 
habit of his mind. He was only lashed to action by 
circumstances of great emergency ; but even then he is 
still an advocate — all is excitement, personal feeling, and 
party spirit : he deals in invective and panegyric, and the 
denunciation of the enemies of his country ; and the parts 
which -especially call forth our admiration differ in nothing 
from those which we admire in his judicial orations. 
Nevertheless, so irresistible was the influence which he 
exercised upon the minds of his hearers, that all his 
political speeches were triumphs. His panegyric on 



1 Bom about b. c. 2. 



348 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Pompey, 1 in the speech for the Manilian law, carried his 
appointment as commander-in-chief of the armies of the 
East. The consequence of the oration de Provinciis 
Consularibus continued to Csesar his administration of 
Graul. He crushed in Catiline one of the most for- 
midable traitors that had ever menaced the safety of the 
republic. Antony's fall followed the complete exposure 
of his debauchery in private life, and the factiousness of 
his public career. 2 

Of the Catilinarians, the first and fourth were delivered 
in the senate, the second and third in the presence of the 
people. Every one knows the burst of indignation which 
the consul, rising in his place, aims at the audacious 
conspirator who dared to pollute with his presence the 
temple of the Deity, and the most august assembly of 
the Roman people. In less than twenty-four hours 
Catiline had left Eome, and the conspiracy had become 
a war. In four words Cicero announced this to the 
assembled Romans the day after he had addressed the 
senate. The third is a piece of self-complacent but 
pardonable egotism. Success has overwhelmed him — he 
sees that all eyes are turned upon himself — he is the 
hero of his own story ; still he demands no reward but 
the approbation of his fellow-citizens, and reminds them 
that to the gods alone their gratitude is due. 

Two days pass away, and, after Csesar and Cicero had 
spoken, Cicero again addresses the senate, and recom- 
mends that measure which was the beginning of his 
troubles, the condemnation of the conspirators. The 
zeal of the senate made the act their own, but Cicero paid 
the penalty. The position which Cicero occupies on this 
occasion invests his speech with more dignity than is 
displayed in any of the preceding. He is the chief 
magistrate of the republic performing the awful duty of 



b. c. 56. 2 Phil. ii. 



THE PHILIPPIC ORATIONS. 349 

pronouncing a capital sentence on the guilty. The ex- 
citement oi' the crisis is subsiding; and he has the more 
composure, because he knows that he carries with him the 
sympathies of the senate and people. 

The Philippics, so named after the orations of Demo- 
sthenes, ure fourteen in number. Cicero commenced his 
attack 1 upon the object of his implacable hatred with a 
defence of the laws of Caesar, which Antony wished to 
repeal. He followed it up with the celebrated second 
oration, in which he demolished the character of Antony ; 
a speech which Juvenal pronounced to be his chef-d'oeuvre, 
but wliich Mebuhr thought was undeserving of being so 
highly exalted. He delivered the remaining twelve in 
the course of the succeeding year : they were the last 
monuments of his eloquence ; he never spoke again. 
The fourteenth is a brilliant panegyric, but nothing 
more ; the gallant army of Octavius received then- de- 
served applause ; but in this political crisis the orator 
could not discern or even catch a glimpse of the future 
destinies of his country. 

In his rhetorical works, Cicero left a legacy of practical 
instruction to posterity. The treatise " De Inventione" 
although it displays genius, is merely interesting as the 
juvenile production of a future great man; and the 
author himself alludes to it as a rude and unfinished pro- 
duction. 2 Of the Rhetorical Hand-book, in four sections, 
addressed to Herennius, it is unnecessary to speak, as 
it is now universally pronounced spurious. 3 The De 
Oratore, Brutus sive de claris Oratoribus, and Orator 
M. Brutum, 4 are the result of his matured experience. 
They form together one series, the principles are first 
laid down ; their developments are carried out and illus- 
trated; and lastly, in the Orator, he places before 



1 Phil. i. ; b. c. 44. 2 De Orat. i. 2. 

3 For the arguments on this point see Smith's Diet. i. 726. 

* b. c. 55, 46, 45. 



350 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the eyes of Brutus the model of ideal perfection. In 
his treatment of this subject, he shows a mind imbued 
with the spirit of Plato : he invests it with dramatic 
interest, and transports the reader into the scene which 
he so graphically describes. The conversation contained 
in the first of these works has been already described. 
The scene of the second is laid on the lawn of Cicero's 
palace at Eome : Cicero, Atticus, and M. Brutus are the 
dramatis persona?; and their taste receives inspiration 
from a statue of Plato which adorns the garden. In the 
third, Cicero himself, at the request of M. Brutus, paints, 
as Plato would have done, the portrait of a faultless 
orator. 

Three more short treatises must be added — (1.) The 
dialogue, De Partitione Oratoria, 1 an elementary book 
written for his son. (2). The De Optimo GenereOratorum? 
a short preface to a translation of the Greek oration, 
De Corona. (3). The Topieaf i. e., a treatise on the 
commonplaces of judicial oratory. 

Philosophy of Cicero. 

Cicero somewhat arrogantly claims the credit of being 
the first to awaken a taste for philosophy, and to illu- 
minate the darkness in which it lay hid by the light of 
Eoman letters. 4 He did not confess the obligations 
under which he lay to his predecessors, because he never 
could forget that he was an orator. 5 He could not deny 
that some of them thought justly ; but he denied that 
they possessed the power of expressing what they thought. 
He felt that there was nothing in the philosophical 
writings already existing to tempt his countrymen to 
study the subject : they were dry, imadorned, un- 
polished. It required an orator to array philosophy in 



b. c. 47. ' 2 b. c. 46. s b. c. 45. 4 Tusc. i. 3. See also ii. 2. 

*DeOff. i. 1. 



miS£ i 



ROMAN PHILOSOPHY. 351 

an enticing garb. He proposed, therefore, to assuage his 
anxieties — to seek repose from the harassing cares of 
politics 1 — by rendering his countrymen independent of 
Greek philosophical literature. 

This was all he proposed to himself: it was all that his 
predecessor had attempted ; nor did he pretend to origin- 
ality. The periods which he devoted to the task, and to 
which all philosophical works belong, were those during 
which he was excluded from political life. The first of 
these was the triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus ; 
the second was coincident with the dictatorship of Caesar 
and the consulship of Antony. Not only did his con- 
templative spirit delight in such studies, but, whilst all 
the avenues to distinction were closed against him, his 
ambition sought this road to fame, and his patriotism 
urged him to take this method of benefiting his country. 
But as he was not the first who introduced philosophy 
to the Eomans, it will be necessary briefly to sketch its 
progress up to the time at which his labours commenced. 

Eoman philosophy was neither the result of original 
investigation nor the gradual development of the Greek 
system. It arose rather from a study of ancient philo- 
sophical literature than from an examination of philoso- 
phical principles. The Eoman intellect did not possess 
the power of abstraction in a sufficiently high degree for 
research, nor was the Latin language capable of repre- 
senting satisfactorily abstract thoughts. Cicero was 
quite aware of the poverty of its scientific nomenclature, 
as compared with that of Greece. In one treatise, 2 he 
writes, — " Equidem soleo etiam, quod uno Graeci, si aliter 
non possum, idem pluribus verbis exprimere." Pliny 3 
and Seneca 4 assert the same fact. " Magis damnabis," 
writes the latter, " angustias Eomanas si scieris unam 
syllabam esse, quam mutare non possim. Quae haec sit 



De Div. TI. ii. l De Fin. iii. 2. 3 Epist. iv. 18. 4 Ibid, lviii. 



352 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

quseris ? to oV." The practical character also of the people 
prompted them to take advantage of the material already 
furnished by others, and to select such doctrines as it 
approved, without regard to their relation to each other. 

The Eoman philosopher, therefore, or rather (to speak 
more correctly) philosophical student, did not throw 
himself into the speculations of his age, pursue them con- 
temporaneously, or deduce from them fresh results. He 
went back to the earlier ages of Greek philosophy, studied, 
commented on, and explained the works of the oest 
authors, and adopted some of their doctrines as fixed 
scholastic dogmas. Consequently, the spirit in which 
philosophical study was pursued by the Romans was a 
literary and not a scientific one. A taste for literature 
had been awakened, and philosophy was considered only 
as one species of literature, although its importance was 
recognised as bearing upon the practical duties, the highest 
interests and happiness of man. The practical view 
which Cicero took of philosophy, and the extensive 
influence which he attributed to it, is manifest from 
numerous passages in his works, 1 and is embodied in the 
following beautiful apostrophe in the Tusculan Disputa- 
tions : 2 "0 vitse Philosophia dux ! virtutis indagatrix, 
expultrixque vitiorum ! Quid non modo nos, sed omnino 
vita hominum sine te esse potuisset ? Tu urbes peperisti ; 
tu dissipatos homines in societatem vitse convocasti ; tu 
eos inter se primo domiciliis, deinde conjugiis, turn 
literarum et vocum communione junxisti ; tu inventrix 
legum, tu magistra morum et discipline fuisti; ad te 
confugimus, a te opem petimus ; tibi nos, ut antea magna 
ex parte, sic nunc penitus totosque tradimus." 

It is plain, therefore, that the chief characteristics 
of Eoman philosophy would be — (1.) Learning, for it 
consisted in bringing together doctrines and opinions 



1 Ex. gr. De Div. ii. 1 ; Brut. 93. 2 See also T. D. ii. 4 ; x. b. v. ii. 



^M^^H^Bitt& 



DEFECTS IN ROMAN PHILOSOPHY. 353 

scattered over a wide field; (2), generally speaking, an 
ethical purpose and object, for Eomans would be little 
inclined to value any subject of study which had no 
ultimate reference to man's political and social relations ; 
(3), Eclecticism ; for although there were certain schools, 
such as the Epicurean and Stoic, which were evidently 
favourites, the dogmas of dilferent teachers were collected 
and combined together often without regard to con- 
sistency. 

The defects of such a system are fatal to its claim to 
be considered philosophical ; for the scientific connexion 
of its parts is lost sight of, and results are presented inde- 
pendent of the chain of causes and effects by which they 
are connected with principles. Such a system must 
necessarily be illogical and inconsequential. Even the 
liberality which adopts the principle, " Nullius jurare in 
verba magistri," and which, therefore, appears to be its 
chief merit, was absurd ; and the willingness with which 
all views were readily admitted led to scepticism, or doubt 
whether such a thing as absolute truth had a real 
existence. 

Greek philosophy was probably first introduced into 
Eonie by the Achaean exiles, of whom Polybius was 
one. 1 The embassy of Carneades the Academic, Diogenes 
the Stoic, and Critolaus the Peripatetic, followed six years 
afterwards. In vain the stern M. Porcius Cato caused 
their dismissal; for some of the most illustrious and 
accomplished Eomans, such as Africanus, Laelius, and 
Furius, had already profited by their lectures^ and 
instructions. 2 Whilst the educated Eomans were gaining 
an historical insight into the doctrines of these schools, 
the Stoic Pansetius, who was entertained in the house- 
hold of Scipio Africanus, was unfolding the mysterious 
and transcendental doctrines of the great object of his 



A. u. c. 592 ; Gell. N. A. xv. 2. a Cic. de Or. ii. 37 

2 A 



354 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

veneration, Plato. But although the Eomans could 
appreciate the majestic dignity and poetical beauty of his 
style, they were not equal to the task of penetrating his 
hidden meaning; they were, therefore, content to take 
upon trust the glosses and commentaries of his expositors. 
These inclined to the New Academy rather than to the 
Old : in its sceptical spirit they compared and balanced 
opposing probabilities ; and went no farther than recom- 
mending the adoption of opinions upon which they could 
not pronounce with certainty. Neither did the Peri- 
patetic doctrines meet with much favour, although the 
works of Aristotle had been brought to Rome by the 
dictator Sulla, partly, as Cicero says, because of the vast- 
ness of the subjects treated, partly because they seemed 
incapable of satisfactory proof to unskilled and inexpe- 
rienced minds. 1 

The philosophical system which first arrested the 
attention of the Romans, and gained an influence over 
their minds, was the Epicurean. But it is somewhat 
remarkable that, although this philosophy was in its 
general character ethical, a people so eminently practical 
in their turn of mind should have especially devoted 
themselves to the study of the physical speculations of 
this school. The only apparent exception to this state- 
ment is Catius, but even his principal works, although 
he wrote one " de Summo Bono/' are on the physical 
nature of things. 

Cicero accounts for the popularity of Epicureanism by 
saying that it was easy — that it appealed to the blandish- 
ments of pleasure ; and that its first professors, Amafanius 
and Rabirrus, used none of the -refinements of art or 
subtleties of dialectic, but clothed their discussions in a 
homely and popular style, suited to the simple and un- 
learned. There were many successors to Amafanius ; and 

1 Tusc. iv. 3. 2 Ritter, H. of Ph. vol. iv. xii. 2, note. 

3 Tusc. iv. 3. 4 Ac. Post I. 2. 



DISCIPLES OF STOICISM. 355 

the doctrines which, they taught rapidly spread over the 
whole of Italy. Many illustrious statesmen, also, were 
amongst the believers in this fashionable creed ; of whom 
the best known are C. Cassius, the fellow-conspirator of 
Brutus, and T. Pomponius Atticus, the friend of Cicero. 
All the monuments and records, however, of the Epi- 
curean philosophy, which were published in Latin, have 
perished, with the exception of the immortal work of 
T. Lucretius Carus, " De Natura Kerum." 

Nor was Stoicism, the severe principles of which were 
in harmony with the stern old Roman virtues, without 
distinguished disciples : such as were the unflinching M. 
Brutus, the learned Terentius Varro, the jurist Scsevola, 
the unbending Cato of Utica, and the magnificent 
Lucullus — a Stoic in creed, though not in life and conduct. 
The part which Cicero's character qualified him to per- 
form in the philosophical instruction of his countrymen 
was scarcely that of a guide : he could give them a lively 
interest in the subiect, and reveal to them the discoveries 
and speculations of others, but he could not mould and 
form their belief, and train them in the work of original 
investigation. Not being himself devoutly attached to 
any system of philosophical belief, he would be cautious 
of offending the philosophical prejudices of others. He 
loved learning, but his temper was undecided and vacil- 
lating: whilst, therefore, he delighted in accumulating 
stores of Greek erudition, the tendency of his mind was, in 
the midst of a variety of inconsistent doctrines, to leave the 
conclusion undetermined. Although he listened to various 
instructors — Phsedrus the Epicurean, Diodotus the Stoic, 
and Philo the Academician — he found the electicism of the 
latter more congenial to his taste. Its preference of 
probability to certainty suited one who shrunk from the 
responsibility of deciding. 

It is this personality, as it were, which gives a special 
interest to the Ciceronian philosophy. The reflexion of 

2 a. 2 



356 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

his personal character which pervades it rescues it from 
the imputation of being a mere transcript of his Greek 
originals. Cicero brings everything as much as possible 
to a practical standard. If the question arises between 
the study of morals and politics and that of physics or 
metaphysics, he decides in favour of the former, on the 
grounds that the latter transcends the capacities of the 
human intellect j 1 that in morals and politics we are 
under obligations from which in physics we are free; that 
we are bound to tear ourselves from these abstract studies 
at the call of duty to our country or our fellow-creatures, 
even if we were able to count the stars or measure the mag- 
nitude of the universe. 2 In the didactic method which he 
pursues he bears in mind that he is dealing not with con- 
templative philosophers, or minds that have been logically 
trained, but with statesmen and men of the world ; he 
does not therefore claim too much, or make his lessons 
too hard, and is always ready to sacrifice scientific system 
to a method of popular instruction. His object seems to 
be to recommend the subject — to smoothe difficulties, and 
illustrate obscurities. He evidently admires the exalted 
purity of Stoical morality ; and the principles of that sect 
are those which he endeavours to impress upon his son. 3 
His only fear is that their system is unpractical. 4 

Cicero believed in the existence of one supreme Creator 
and Governor of the universe, and also in His spiritual 
nature ; 5 but his belief is rather the result of instinctive 
conviction, than of the proofs derived from philosophy, 
for as to them, he is, as on other points, uncertain and 
wavering. He disbelieved the popular mythical religion ; 
but uncertain as to what was the truth he would not have 
that disturbed which he looked upon as a political engine. 6 
Amidst the doubtful and conflicting reasons respecting 



1 De Kep. 1. 18, 19. « De Off. i. 43. 3 Ibid. 

4 De Fin. iv. 9. d Tusc. i. 27, 28 6 De Leg. ii. 13. 



SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY OF CICERO. 357 

the human soul and man's eternal destiny, there is no 
doubt that, although lie finds no satisfactory proof, lie is 
a believer in immortality. 1 It is unnecessary to pursue 
the subject of Iris pliilosopliicai creed any further, because 
it is not a system, but only a collection of precepts, not 
of investigations. Its materials are borrowed, its illus- 
trations alone novel. But, nevertheless, the study of 
Cicero's philosophical works is invaluable, in order to un- 
derstand the minds of those who came after him. It must 
not be forgotten, that not only all Eoman philosophy 
after his time, but great part of that of the middle ages, 
was Greek philosophy filtered through Latin, and mainly 
founded on that of Cicero. Cicero's works on speculative 
philosophy generally consist of: — (1). The Academics, 
or a history and defence of the belief of the New Academy. 
(2). The Be Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, dialogues on the 
supreme good, the end of all moral action. (3). The Tus- 
culance Bisputationes, containing five independent treatises 
on the fear of death, the endurance of pain, the power of 
wisdom over sorrow, the morbid passions, the relation of 
virtue to happiness. In these treatises Stoicism predomi- 
nates, although opinions are adduced from the whole range 
of Greek philosophy. (4). Paradoxa, in which the six 
celebrated Stoical paradoxies are touched upon in a light 
and amusing manner. (5). A dialogue in praise of phi- 
losophy, named after Hortensius. (6). Translations of 
the Timseus and Protagoras of Plato. Of these three 
last treatises only a few fragments remain. 

His moral philosophy comprehends — (1). The Be 
Officiis, a Stoical treatise on moral obligations, addressed 
to his son Marcus, at that time a student at Athens. 
(2). The unequalled little essays on Friendship and Old 
Age. A few words also are preserved of two books 
on Glory, addressed to Atticus ; and one which he wrote 



1 Dc Sen. 21. 



358 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

on the Alleviation of Grief when bereaved of his beloved 
daughter. 1 He left one theological work in three parts : 
the first part is on the " Nature of the Gods ;" the second 
on the " Science of Divination ;" the third on " Fate," 
of which an inconsiderable fragment is extant. His office 
of augur probably suggested to him the composition of 
these treatises. 

His political works are two in number — the De Re- 
publica 2 and De Legibus ; both are imperfect. The re- 
mains of the former are only fragmentary ; of the latter, 
three out of six books are extant, and those not entire. 
Nevertheless, sufficient of both remains to enable us to 
form some estimate of their philosophical character. 
Although he does not profess originality, but confesses 
that they are imitations of the two treatises of Plato, which 
bear the same name, still they are more inductive than 
any of his other treatises. His purpose is, like that of 
Plato, to give in the one an ideal republic, and in the 
other a sketch of a model legislation ; but the novelty of 
the treatment consists in their principles being derived 
from the Eoman constitution and the Eoman laws. 

The questions which he proposes to answer are, what 
is the best government and the best code ; but the limits 
within which he confines himself are the institutions of 
his country. In the Republic he first discusses, like 
the Greek philosophers, the merits and demerits of the 
three pure forms of government ; and upon the whole 
decides in favour of monarchy 3 as the best. With Aris- 
totle 4 he agrees that all the pure forms are liable to de- 
generate, 5 and comes to the conclusion that the idea of a 
perfect polity is a combination of all three. 6 In order to 
prove and illustrate his theory, he investigates, though it 
must be confessed in a meagre and imperfect manner, the 



B. c. 45. 2 B. c. 54. 3 Lib. i. 26, 35, 45 ; ii. 23. 4 Ethics. 

5 Lib. i. 27, 28 ; ii. 39. 6 Lib. i. 29, 35, 45. 



THE TREATISE DE LEGIBUS. 359 

constitutional history of Borne, and discovers the monar- 
chical element in the consulship, the aristocratic in the 
senate, and the popular in the assembly of the people and 
the tribunitial authority. 

The Romans continued jealously to preserve the shadow 
of their constitution, even after they had surrendered the 
substance. Nominally, the titles and offices of the old 
republic never perished — the Emperor was in name no- 
thing more than (Imperator) the commander-in-chief of the 
armies of the republic, but in him all power centred, he 
was absolute, autocratic, the chief of a military despotism. 1 
Cicero, as the treatise De Legibus plainly shows, saw, 
with approbation, that this state of things was rapidly 
coming to pass ; that the people were not fitted to be 
trusted with liberty, and yet that they would be contented 
with its semblance and name. 

The method which he pursues, is, firstly, to treat the sub- 
ject in the abstract, and to investigate the nature of law ; 
and, secondly, to propose an ideal code, limited by the prin- 
ciples of Roman jurisprudence. Thus Cicero's polity and 
code were not Utopian — the models on which they were 
formed had a real tangible existence. His was the system 
of a practical man, as the Roman constitution was that of 
a practical people. It was not like Greek liberty, the 
realization of one single idea : it was like that of England, 
the growth of ages, the development of a long train 
of circumstances, and expedients, and experiments, and 
emergencies. Cicero prudently acquiesced in the ruin of 
liberty as a stern necessity ; but he evidently thought 
that Rome had attained the zenith of its national great- 
ness immediately before the agitations of the Gracchi. 

Both these works are written in the engaging form of 
dialogues. In the one, Scipio iEmilianus, Lselius, ScaBvola, 
and others, meet together in the Latin holidays (Ferise 



See Tac. Annal. I. 



360 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Latinse), and discuss the question of government. In the 
other, the writer liimself, with his brother Quintus and 
Atticus, converse on jurisprudence whilst they saunter on 
a little islet near Arpinum at the confluence of the Liris 
and Fibrena. 

We must, lastly, contemplate Cicero as a correspondent. 
This intercourse of congenial minds separated from one 
another, and induced by the force of circumstances to 
digest and arrange their thoughts in their communication, 
forms one of the most delightful and interesting, and at 
the same time one of the most characteristic, portions of 
Roman literature. A Roman thought that whenever he 
put pen to paper it was his duty, to a certain extent, to 
avoid carelessness and offences against good taste, and to 
bestow upon his friend some portion of that elaborate 
attention which, as an author, he would devote to the 
public eye. In fact the letter-writer was almost address- 
ing the same persons as the author ; for the latter wrote 
for the approbation of his friends, the circle of intimates 
in which he lived : the approbation of the public was a 
secondary object. The Greeks were not writers of letters : 
the few which we possess were mere written messages, 
containing such necessary information as the interruption 
of intercourse demanded. There was no interchange of 
hopes and fears, thoughts, sentiments, and feelings. 

The extent of Cicero's correspondence is almost in- 
credible : even those epistles which remain form a very 
voluminous collection — more than eight hundred are ex- 
tant. The letters to his friends and acquaintances (ad 
Familiares) occupy sixteen books ; those to Atticus sixteen 
more ; and we have besides three books of letters to 
Quintus, and one to Brutus, but the authenticity of this last 
collection is somewhat doubtful. It is quite clear that 
none of them were intended for publication, as those of 
Pliny and Seneca were. They are elegant without stiff- 
ness, the natural outpourings of a mind which could not 



iSSl 



THE LETTERS OF CICERO. 361 

give birth to an ungraceful idea. Wlien speaking of the 
perilous and critical politics of the day, more or less re- 
straint and reserve are apparent, according to the intimacy 
with the person whom he is addressing, but no attempt 
at pompous display. His style is so simple that the 
reader forgets that Cicero ever wrote or delivered an 
oration. There is the eloquence of the heart, not of the 
rhetoric school. Every subject is touched upon which 
could interest the statesman, the man of letters, the 
admirer of the fine arts, or the man of the world. The 
writer reveals in them his own motives, his secret springs 
of actions, his loves, his hatreds, his strength, his weak- 
ness. They extend over more than a quarter of a cen- 
tury, the most interesting period of his own life, and one 
of the most critical in the history of his country. The 
letters to Quintus are those of an elder brother to one 
who stood in great need of good advice. Although 
Quintus was not deserving of his brother's affection, M. 
Cicero was warmly attached to him, and took an interest 
in his welfare. Quintus was propraetor of Asia, and not 
fitted for the office : and Cicero was not sparing in his 
admonitions, though he offered them with kindness and 
delicacy. The details of his family concerns form not 
the least interesting portion of this correspondence. 
There is, as might be expected, more reserve in the letters 
ad Familiar es than in those addressed to Atticus. They 
are written to a variety of correspondents, of every shade 
and complexion of opinions, many of them mere acquaint- 
ances, not intimate friends ; but whilst, for this reason, 
less historically valuable, they are the most pleasing of 
the collection, on account of the exquisite elegance of 
their style. They are models of pure Latinity. In the 
letters to Atticus, on the other hand, he lays bare the 
secrets of his heart ; he trusts his life in his hands ; he 
is not only his friend but his confidant, Iris second self. 
Were it not for the letters of Cicero, we should have had 



362 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

but a superficial knowledge of this period of Eoman 
history, as well as of the inner life of Eoman society. 

An elegant poetic compliment paid to Cicero by Laurea 
Tullus, one of his freedinen, has been preserved by Pliny. 1 
The subject of it is a medicinal spring in the neighbour- 
hood of the Academy. 

Quo tua Romanse vindex clarissime linguae 

Silva loco melius surgere jussa viret 
Atque Academise celebratam nomine villam 

Nunc reparat cultu sub potiore Vetus : 
Hie etiam adparent lymphse non ante repertse 

Languida quae infuso lumina rore levant. 
Nimirum locus ipse sui Ciceronis honori 

Hoc dedit hac fontes cum patefecit opes 
Ut quoniam totum legitur sine fine per orbem 

Sint plures oculis quae medeantur, aquae. 

Father of eloquence in Rome, 

The groves that once pertained to thee 

Now with a fresher verdure bloom 
Around thy famed Academy. 

Vetus at length this favoured seat 

Hath with a tasteful care restored ; 
And newly at thy loved retreat 

A gushing fount its stream has poured. 

These waters cure an aching sight ; 

And thus the spring that bursts to view 
Through future ages shall requite 

The fame this spot from Tully drew. Elton. 

The correspondents of Cicero included a number of 
eminent men. Atticus was the least interesting, for his 
politic caution rendered him unstable and insincere ; but 
there was Cassius the tyrannicide, the Stoical Cato of 
Utica ; Csecina, the warm partisan of Pompey ; the orator 
Csehus Eufus ; Hirtius and Oppius, the literary friends of 
Csesar; Lucceius the historian; Matius the mimiambic 
poet ; and that patron of arts and letters, 2 C. Asinius 
Pollio. 



1 See Meyer's Anthol. 67. 2 Hor. Od. ii. 1. 



ASINIUS POLLIO. 363 

Pollio was a scion of a distinguished house, and was born 
at Rome B.C. 76. l Even as a youth he was distinguished 
for wit and sprightliness ; 2 and at the age of twenty-two 
was the prosecutor of C. Cato. He was with Csesar at 
the Kubicon, at Pharsalia, in Africa, and in Spain ; and 
was finally intrusted with the conduct of the war in that 
province against Sextus Pompey. On the establishment 
of the first triumviate, Pollio, after some hesitation, sent 
in his adhesion ; and Antony intrusted him with the 
administration of Grallia Transpadana, including the allot- 
ment of the confiscated lands among the veteran soldiers. 
He thus had opportunity of protecting Virgil and saving 
his property. In B.C. 40, Octavian and Antony were 
reconciled at Brundisium by his mediation. A successful 
campaign in Illyria concluded his military career with the 
glories of a triumph, 3 and he then retired from public life 
to his villa at Tusculum, and devoted himself to study. 
He enjoyed life to the last, and died in his eightieth 
year. He left three children, one of whom, Asinius 
Grallus, 4 wrote a comparison between his father and Cicero, 
which was answered by the Emperor Claudius. 5 

In oratory, poetry, and history, Pollio enjoyed a high 
reputation amongst contemporary critics, and yet none of 
his works have survived. The solution of this difficulty 
may, perhaps, be found in the following circumstances : — 
1 . His patronage of literary men rendered him popular, 
and drew from the critics a somewhat partial verdict. 
His kindness caused Horace to extol 6 him, and Virgil to 
address to him his most remarkable eclogue. 7 2. His taste 
was formed before the new literary school commenced. 
He had always a profound admiration for the old writers, 
and frequently quoted them. His style probably ap- 
peared antiquated and pedantic, and, therefore, never 



Hieron. in Eus. Ch. 2 Catull. xii. 1. 3 b. c. 39. 

Tac. Ann. i. 12. 5 Plin. Ep. vii. 4 ; Suet. CI. 41. 

Sat. I. x. ; Carm. ii.l. 7 Eel. iii. 86 ; viii. 



364 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

became generally popular. A later writer 1 says, that he 
was so harsh and dry as to appear to have reproduced 
the style of Attius and Pacuvius, not only in his tragedies, 
but also in his orations. Quintilian observes, 2 that he 
seemed to belong to the pre-Ciceronian period. Niebuhr, 
who could only form his opinion upon the slight frag- 
ments preserved by Seneca, for the three letters in 
Cicero's collection 3 are only despatches, affirms that he 
seems to stand between two distinct generations, 4 namely, 
the literary periods of Cicero and Virgil. His great 
work was a history of the civil wars, in seventeen books. 
He pretended to be a critic, but his criticism was fas- 
tidious and somewhat ill-natured. He found blemishes 
in Cicero, inaccuracies in Caesar, pedantry in Sallust, and 
provincialism (Patavinitas) in Livy. The correctness of 
his judgment respecting the charming narratives of the 
great historian has been assumed from generation to 
generation, yet no one can discover in what this Pata- 
vinity consists. It was easier to find fault than to write 
correctly; for, whilst all the labours of the critic have 
perished, Cicero, Caesar, Sallust, and Livy, are immortal. 
Vehemence and passion developed his character. 

Still he was one of the greatest benefactors to the 
literature of his country ; more especially as he was the 
first to found a public library. Books had already been 
brought to Pome, and collections formed. iEmilius 
Paulus had a library — Lucullus had one also, to which 
he allowed learned men to have access. Sulla enriched 
Eome with the plunder of the Athenian libraries ; and in 
his time Tyrannis the grammarian was the possessor of 
three thousand volumes. Julius Caesar employed the 
learned Varro to collect books with a view to a national 
collection, but death put a stop to his intentions. 5 Pollio 



1 Dial, de Orat. 21. 2 Lib. x. i. 113. 3 Ad Fam. x. 31, 32, 33. 

4 Lect. R. H. cvi. 5 Plin. H. N. vii. 3 ; xxxv, 2, 



PUBLIC LIBRARIES. 305 

expended the spoils of Dalmatia in founding a temple to 
Liberty in the Aventine, and furnishing it with a library, 
the nucleus of which were the collections of Sulla and 
Varro. After this time, the work was carried on by 
imperial munificence. Augustus founded the Octavian 
library in the temple of Juno, and the Palatine in the 
palace. Tiberius augmented the latter. Vespasian placed 
one in the temple of Peace. Trajan formed the Ulpian ; 
Domitian the Capitoline ; Hadrian a magnificent one at 
his own villa ; and in the reign of Constantine the number 
of public libraries exceeded twenty. 

M. Terentius Varro Eeatinus (born b.c. 116). 

On an ancient medal is represented the effigy of Julius 
Csesar bearing a book in one hand and a sword in the 
other, 1 with the legend " Ex utroque Caesar." This 
device represents the genius of many a distinguished 
citizen of the republic, and that of Varro amongst the 
number, for he was a soldier, and at the same time the 
most learned of his countrymen. He was born 2 at Eeate 
(Eieti), a Sabine town situated in the Tempe of Italy, 
in the neighbourhood of the celebrated cascade of Terni. 
iElius Stilo, the antiquarian, was the instructor of his 
earlier years, 3 and from him he derived his thirst for 
knowledge, and his ardent devotion to original investiga- 
tion. He subsequently studied philosophy under Anti- 
ochus, a professor of the Academic school. 4 In politics 
he was warmly attached to the party of Pompey, under 
whom he served in the Piratic and Mithridatic wars. He 
was also one of his three Legati in Spain, and did not 
resign his command until the towns in the south of that 
province eagerly submitted to Caesar. After the battle 
of Pharsalia, he experienced the clemency of the con- 



1 See Exc. in Delph. Cic. a b. c. 116. 3 Cic. Brut. i. 56. 

4 Cic. Acad. iii. 12. 



366 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

queror, but not*soon enough to save his villa from being 
attacked and plundered. 1 

Csesar appreciated Varro's extensive learning, and 
intrusted to him the formation of the great public 
library. 2 Henceforth he shunned the perils of political 
life, 3 and in the retirement of his villas devoted himself 
zealously to the pursuit of literature. Nevertheless, he 
could not escape the unrelenting persecution of political 
party; for in that proscription to which Cicero fell a 
victim, his name was in the list until it was erased by 
Antony. 4 Although he was seventy years old, his 
industry was unabated, and he continued his literary 
labours until his death, which took place in the eighty- 
ninth year of his age. 5 Yarro was a man of ponderous 
erudition and unwearied industry, 6 without a spark of 
taste and genius. No Roman author wrote so much as 
he did, no one read so much except Pliny ; yet, notwith- 
standing all this practice and study, he never acquired an 
agreeable style. He dissected and anatomized the Latin 
language with all the powers of critical analysis ; but he 
was never imbued with its elegant polish or its nervous 
eloquence. 

Wherever, as in the case of his treatise on agriculture, 
he had access to sound information and good authority, 
his habits of arrangement, the clearness with which he 
classified, and the careful judgment with which he adduced 
his facts, render his works valuable. Few men have 
possessed greater powers of combining and systematizing : 
his mind was, as it were, full of compartments, in which 
each species of knowledge had its proper place, but it was 
nothing more. "Whenever he left the beaten track of 
other, men's discoveries, and indulged in free conjecture 
or original thought, as in his grammatical works, his 



1 Cic. Phil. ii. 18. 2 Caes. B. G. i. 38 ; ii. 17. 3 Cic. ad Fara. ix. 13. 
4 B. c. 43. 5 Plin. N. H. xxix. 4. 6 Quint, x i. 95. 



II. TERENTIUS VARRO REATINUS. 3G7 

learning seems to desert him ; and etymology, wliich has 
tempted so many mere conjecturers to go astray, led him 
also into absurdity. 

One of his works, Antiquitates Divinarum Rerum, 
acquires a peculiar interest from the fact of its having 
been the storehouse from which St. Augustine, who was 
a great admirer of his learning, derived much of his 
treatise De Civitate Dei. How this laborious compilation 
was lost it is impossible to say. We can only lament 
the accident which deprives us of the work to wliich 
especially the author owes his reputation. In the treatise, 
which together with this forms one work, namely, An- 
tiquitates Rerum Humanarum, he investigated the early 
history and chronology of Rome, and fixed the date of 
the building of the city in the year B.C. 753, a date wliich 
is now commonly received by the best historians. 

A catalogue of his numerous books and tracts on 
almost every subject wliich then engaged the attention 
of literary men — on history, biography, geography, 
philosophy, criticism, and morals — would be uninterest- 
ing, but his principal works were as follows : — 

i. De Re Rustica Libri in. 

ii. De Lingua Latina Libri xxiv., of which only six 
are extant, and these in a mutilated condition. 

in. Antiquitates Rerum Humanarum, Libri xxv. 
Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum, Libri xvi. 

iv. Saturce, partly in prose, partly in verse ; consisting 
of moral essays and dialogues, exposing the vices and 
follies of the day, and teaching their lessons rather in a 
light and amusing than a didactive form. 

v. Poems, of wliich eighteen short epigrams of no great 
merit are extant. 

1 See Meyer's Anthol. 78. 2 Meyer, Anthol. Rom. 34—51. 



368 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER XL 

roman historical literature — principal historians — 
litcceius— lucullus— cornelius nepos— opinions on the 
genuineness of the works which bear his name — bio- 
graphy of j. c^sar — his commentaries — their style 
and language — his modesty overrated — other works 
— character of c^sar. 

Historical Writers. 

In historical composition alone can the Eomans lay claim 
to originality ; and in their historical literature especially 
is exliibited a faithful transcript of their mind and 
character. History at once gratified their patriotism, 
and its investigations were in accordance with their love 
of the real and practical. Thus those natural powers 
which had been elicited and cultivated by an acquaintance 
with Greek literature were applied with a naive simplicity 
to the narration of events, and embellished them with all 
the graces of a refined style. The practical good sense 
and political wisdom which the Roman social system was 
admirably adapted to nurture found food for reflection : 
their shrewd insight into character, and their searching 
scrutiny into the human heart, gave them a power over 
their materials ; and hence they were enabled in this 
department of literature to emulate, not merely imitate, 
the Greeks, and to be their rivals, and sometimes their 
superiors. The elegant simplicity of Csesar is as at- 
tractive as that of Herodotus ; not one of the Greek 
historians surpasses Livy in talent for the picturesque, 



CATALOGUE OF ROMAN HISTORIANS. 3()i) 

and in the charm with which he invests his spirited and 
living stories; whilst for condensation of thought, terse- 
ness of expression, and political and philosophical acumen, 
Tacitus is not inferior to Thucydides. 

The subjects which historical investigation furnished 
were so peculiarly national, and so congenial to the 
character of the mind of tlie Romans, that tliey seem to 
have cast aside their Greek originals, and to have struck 
out an independent line for themselves. 

The catalogue of Eoman historians is a proud one. 
At the head of it stand the four great names of Caesar, 
Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus ; all of whom, except the last, 
belong to the Augustan age. It comprehends those of 
Cornelius Nepos, Trogus Pompeius, Cremutius Cordus, 
Aufidius Bassus, and Sallust, in the golden age ; Velleius 
Paterculus, Valerius Maximus, Q. Curtius, Suetonius, and 
Florus, in the succeeding one : nor must L. Lucceius 
and L. Licinius Lucullus be passed over without 
mention. 

L. Lucceius. 

L. Lucceius, the friend and correspondent of Cicero, 1 
was an orator who espoused the party of J. Csesar, and, 
relying on his influence, became, together with him, a 
candidate for the consulship. 2 Being unsuccessful, he 
quitted politics for the calm enjoyment of a literary life. 
His right to be called an historian is founded on his 
having commenced a history of the Social and Civil Wars, 
but it was never completed or published. Cicero 3 entreats 
him to speak of the events which he was recording, as 
well as of his own character and conduct, with partiality ; 
it is, therefore, impossible to trust the encomiums which 
accompany this request, as they were probably dictated 
by a wish to purchase his favourable opinion. The 



1 See ad Att. i. 3, 5, 10, 11, 14. 2 b. c. 60. 

3 Ad Fam. v. 12 ; xv. 21, G. 

2 B 



370 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

period of his retirement from public affairs was not of 
long duration, for he afterwards again engaged in the 
civil strife which agitated Eome, and joined the party of 
Pompey, who held him in high estimation. 1 On his 
downfall he shared with other Pompeians the clemency 
of the Dictator. 

L. Licinius Lucullus. 

L. Licinius Lucullus, 2 the illustrious but luxurious 
conqueror of Mithridates, did not disdain to devote his 
leisure to the composition of history, although his works 
are not of such merit as to claim for him a distinguished 
position among the historians of his country. The 
stirring events of the Social War tempted him to record 
them. 3 Part of his enormous wealth he had expended on 
a magnificent library : to the poet Archias he was a kind 
friend; 4 and his patronage was liberally granted to 
literary men, especially to those philosophers who held 
the doctrines of his favourite Academy. Like most of 
those who combined with a love of literature a life of 
activity in the public service of his country, he was an 
orator of no mean abilities. 5 His love of Greek, and his 
habits of intercourse with Greek philosophers, led him to 
write his history in the Greek language, and to select 
and transcribe extracts from the histories of Csslius 
Antipater, and Polybius. 

Cornelius Nepos. 

Cornelius Nepos was a contemporary of Catullus, and 
lived until the sixth year of the reign of Augustus. 6 
Ausonius says that he was a Graul, Y Catullus that he was 
an Italian. 8 Both are probably right, as the prevailing 



> 1 Ad Att. ix. 1. 2 Consul, b. c. 74. 3 Ad Att. i. 19. 

4 Cic. pro Arch. 5 Cic. Brut. 62. 6 Ad Att. i. 19 ; Liv. iv. 23 ; x. 9. 
7 Hieron. Chron. Euseb. 8 Praef. Epigr. i. 3. 



I 



LOST WORKS OF CORNELIUS NEPOS. 371 

opinion is, that he was born either at Verona, or the 
neighbouring village of Hostilia, in Cisalpine Gaul. 
Besides Catullus, he reckoned Cicero 1 and Atticus 
amongst the number of his friends. 2 These circum- 
stances constitute all that is known respecting his per- 
sonal history. 

All his works which are mentioned by the ancients are 
unfortunately lost ; but respecting the genuineness of that 
with which every scholar is familiar from his cliildhood, 
strong doubts have been entertained. His lost works 
were, (1.) Three books of Chronicles, or a short, abridg- 
ment of Universal History. They are mentioned by 
A. Gellius, 3 and allusion is made to them by Catullus. 4 
(.2.) Five books of anecdotes styled " Libri Exemplorum," 5 
and also entitled " The Book of C. Nepos de Viris illus- 
tribiis." (3.) A Life of Cicero, 6 and a collection of Letters 
addressed to him. 7 (4.) " De Historicis," or Memoirs of 
Historians. 8 The work now extant which bears his name 
is entitled " The Lives of Eminent Generals." But 
besides the biographies of twenty generals, it contains 
short accounts of some celebrated monarchs, lives of 
Hamilcar and Hannibal, and also of Cato and Atticus. 
The procimium of the book is addressed to one Atticus, 
and to the first edition was prefixed a dedication to the 
Emperor Theodosius, from which it appeared that the 
author's name was Probus. These biographical sketches 
continued to be ascribed to this unknown author, until 
the latter half of the sixteenth century. 

At that time the celebrated scholar Lambinus, Begius 
Professor of Belles Lettres at Paris, argued from the 
purity of the style that it was a work of classical 
antiquity, and, from a passage in the life of Cato, that the 
Atticus, to whom it was dedicated, was the well-known 



Gell. xv. 28. a CIc. ad Att. xvi. 5. 3 lib. xvii. 21, 3. 

Lib. i. 3. 5 A. Gell. vii. 18 ; xxi. 8. 6 Ibid. xv. 28. 

Lactant. Inst. Div. iii. 15. 3 C. Nep. Vit. Dion. 3. 

.2 B 2 



372 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

correspondent of Cicero, and the author no other than 
Cornelius Nepos. The argument derived from the 
Latinity is unanswerable ; that, however, from the life of 
Cato is a " petitio principii" inasmuch as there is no more 
evidence in favour of the life of Cato having been written 
by Nepos, than the other biographies. The life of 
Atticus, which is a complete model of biographical com- 
position, is ascribed to him by name in some of the best 
MSS. Of the rest nothing more can be affirmed with 
certainty, than that they are a work, or the epitome of a 
work, belonging to the Augustan age. 

The strongest evidence which exists in favour of the 
authorship of C. Nepos, is that Jerome Magius, a con- 
temporary of Lambinus, who also published an annotated 
edition of the " Vitce Illustrium Imperatorum" found a 
MS. with the following conclusion : " Completum est 
opus iEmilii Probi Cornelii Nepotis." These words 
would seem to assert the authorship of Nepos, and at the 
same time to admit that Probus was the editor or 
epitomator, and thus support the theory of Lambinus, 
without accusing Probus of a literary forgery. 

C. Julius Cesar (born b.c 100). 

To give a biographical account of Caesar would be, in 
fact, nothing less than to trace the contemporary history 
of Eome ; for Eoman history had now become the history 
of those master-minds who seized upon, or were invested 
by their countrymen with supreme power. Although 
the rapid and energetic talents of Caesar never permitted 
him to lose a day, his active devotion to the truly Eoman 
employments of politics and war left him little time for 
sedentary occupations. His literary biography, therefore, 
will necessarily occupy but a short space, compared with 
the other great events of his career. 

C. Julius Ca3sar was descended from a family of the 



BIOGRAPHY OF JULIUS CJESAR. 373 

Julian gens, one of the oldest among the patrician families 
of Rome, of which all but a very few had by this time 
become extinct. The Caesar family was not only of 
patrician descent, but numbered amongst its members, 
during the century which preceded the birth of the 
Dictator, many who had served curule offices with great 
distinction. He was born on the 4th of the ides of July 
(the 12th), b.c. 100, and attached liimself, both by politics 
and by matrimonial connexion, to the popular party : his 
good taste, great tact, and pleasing manners, contributed, 
together with his talents, to insure his popularity. He 
became a soldier in the nineteenth year of his age ; and 
hence his works display all the best qualities which are 
fostered by a military education, and which therefore 
characterise the military profession — frankness, simplicity, 
and brevity. He served his first campaign at the con- 
clusion of the first Mithridatic war, during which he was 
present at the siege and capture of Mitylene, 1 and received 
the honour of a civic crown for saving the life of a citizen. 

His earliest literary triumph was as an orator. Cn. 
Dolabella was suspected of oppressive extortion in the 
administration of his province of Macedonia, and Caesar 
came forward as his accuser. The celebrated Hor- 
tensius was the advocate for the accused; and although 
Caesar did not gain his cause, the skill and eloquence 
which he displayed as a pleader gave promise of his 
becoming hereafter a consummate orator. The following 
year he increased his reputation by taking up the cause 
of the province of Achaia against C. Antonius, who was 
accused of the same crime as Dolabella ; but he was again 
unsuccessful in the result. 

He subsequently sailed for Rhodes, in order to pursue 
the study of oratory under the direction of Apollonius 
Molon, 2 who was not only a teacher of rhetoric, but also 



b. c. 80. * Suet. Cses. 4 ; Cic. Att. ii. 1, 



374 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

an able and eloquent pleader in the courts of law. 
Cicero 1 bears testimony to bis being a skilful instructor 
and an eloquent speaker, and received instruction from 
him when he came to .Rome as an ambassador from 
Ehodes. 2 Csesar, on his voyage, was captured by pirates ; 
but after he was ransomed, he carried his intention into 
effect, and placed himself for a short time under the 
tuition of Molon. After his return to Borne, 3 a pro- 
position was made to recall from exile those of the party 
of Lepidus, who had joined Sertorius, and he spoke in 
favour of the measure. Two years subsequently he 
delivered funeral orations in praise of his wife Cornelia, 
who was the daughter of Cinna, and his aunt Julia, the 
widow of Marius. 

The Catilinarian conspiracy, in which, without reason, 
he was suspected of having been concerned, furnished 
him with another opportunity of displaying his ability as 
an orator. His speech in the senate on the celebrated 
nones of December, would probably have saved the lives 
of the conspirators, had not Cato's influence prevailed. 
Caesar pleaded that it was unconstitutional to put Eoman 
citizens to death by the vote of the senate, without a 
trial ; but his arguments were overruled, and the measure 
which subsequently led to the fall and assassination of 
Cicero was carried. The following year, 4 when Metellus 
made this a subject of accusation against Cicero, Csesar 
again supported the same view with his eloquence, but 
was unsuccessful. ; 

Great, therefore, although it is said that his talents as 
an orator were, he never appears to have convinced his 
hearers. This may have been owing, not to deficiency in 
skill, but to the unfortunate nature of the causes which he 
took in hand, or to the superior powers of his opponents, 
for there is no doubt that his manner of speaking was 



1 Brut 91. 'B.C. 81. 3 B. c. 70. 4 B. c. 62, 



C/ESAR PONTIFBX MAXIMUS. 375 

most engaging and popular. Tacitus speaks of Mm not 
only as the greatest of authors, 1 but also as rivalling the 
most accomplished orators ; 2 whilst Suetonius praises his 
eloquence, and quotes the testimony of Cicero himself in 
support of his favourable criticism. 3 

Hitherto, with the exception of Ins first campaign, the 
life of Ca?sar was of a civil complexion. His literary 
eminence took the colouring of the public occupations in 
winch he was engaged. Like a true Eoman, literature 
was subordinate to public duty, and his taste was directed 
into the channel which was most akin to, and identified 
with* his life. His intellectual vigour, however, demanded 
employment as well as his practical talents for business ; 
and for this reason, as has been seen, he devoted himself 
to the study of oratory ; and the principal works which as 
yet obtain for him a place in a history of Eoman literature 
are merely orations. 

His next official appointment opened to him a new field 
for thought. In b. c. 63 he obtained the office of Pontifex 
Ma x im us, and examined so diligently into the history and 
nature of the Eoman belief in augury, of which he was 
the official guardian, that his investigations were pub- 
lished in a work consisting of at least sixteen books (Libri 
Ampiciorum)} In order to fit himself for discharging 
the duties of his office he studied astronomy, and even 
wrote a treatise on that science, 5 entitled " cle Astris," and 
a poem somewhat resembling the Phenomena of Aratus. 
His knowledge of this science enabled him, with the aid 
of the Alexandrian astronomers, to carry into effect some 
years 6 afterwards the reformation of the calendar. 

The works above mentioned are philosophically and 
scientifically valueless, but curious and interesting ; but 
we have now to view Caesar in that capacity which was 



1 Germ. 28. 2 Annal. xiii. 3. 3 Suet. v. Jul. 55. 

* See Macr. Sat. i. 16. 5 Ibid. 6 B. 0. in. 



376 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the foundation of his literary reputation. He ohtained 
the province of Hispania Ulterior -, 1 and at this post his 
career as a military commander began. As had been the 
case during his previous career, so now the almost inces- 
sant demands on his thoughts and time did not divert 
him from literary pursuits, but determined the channel 
in which his tastes should seek satisfaction, and furnished 
the subject for his pen. He had evidently an ardent love 
for literature for its own sake. It was not the paltry 
ambition of showing that he could achieve success, and 
even superiority, in everything which he chose to under- 
take, although his versatility of talent was such as to 
encourage him to expect success, but a real attachment to 
literary employment. Hence whatever leisure his duties 
as a military commander permitted him to enjoy was 
devoted, as to a labour of love, to the composition of his 
Memoirs or Commentaries of the Gallic and Civil Wars. 

His comprehensive and liberal mind was also convinced 
of the embarrassing technicalities which impeded the 
administration of the Eoman law. Its interpretation 
was confined to a few who had studied its pedantic mys- 
teries ; and the laws which regulated the dies fasti and 
nefasti had originally placed its administration in the 
hands of the priests and patricians. Appius Claudius had 
already commenced the work of demolishing the fences 
which to the people at large were impregnable ; and Caesar 
entertained the grand design of reducing its principles 
and practice to a regular code. 2 His views he embodied 
in a treatise, 3 which, as is often the case with pamphlets, 
perished when the object ceased to exist for which it was 
intended. 

It is said that he also contemplated a complete survey 
and map of the Eoman empire. 4 But his greatest bene- 



1 b. C. 61. a Suet. V. Jul. 44. 3 A. Gell. i. 22. 

4 Meri vale's II . of R. ii. 422. 



THE COMMENTARIES. 377 

faction, perhaps, to the cause of Eoman literature was tlie 
establishment of a public library. 1 The spoils of Italy, 
collected by Asinius Pollio, furnished the materials, just 
as the museums of Paris were enriched by the great 
modern conqueror from the plunder of Europe ; but it 
was, nevertheless, a great and patriotic work; and he 
enhanced its utility by entrusting the collection and 
arrangement of it to the learned Varro as librarian. 

Besides the works already named, Caesar left behind 
him various letters, some of which are extant amongst 
those of Cicero ; orations, of which, if the panegyrics of 
Cicero, Tacitus, and Quintilian 2 are not exaggerated, it is 
deeply to be regretted that the titles are alone preserved ; 3 
a short treatise or pamphlet, called Anticato ; a work on 
the analogy of the Latin language ; a collection of apo- 
thegms ; and a few poems. 

These are the grounds on which the claims of the great 
conqueror to literary fame rest in the various capacities of 
orator, historian, antiquarian, philosopher, grammarian, 
and poet ; but by far the most important of his works is his 
" Commentaries." These have fortunately come down to 
us in a tolerably perfect state, although much still remains 
to be done before we can be said to possess an accurate 
edition. 4 Seven books contain the history of seven years 
of the Grallic war, and three carry the history of the civil 
war down to the commencement of the Alexandrine. 
These are the work of Caesar himself. The eighth book, 
" De Bello Gallico" which completes the subject, and the 
three supplemental books of the work, " Be Bello Civili" 
which contain the Alexandrine, African, and Spanish 
wars, have been variously ascribed to the friends of Caesar, 
A. Hirtius, C. Oppius, and even to Pansa. The claims 
of the latter, however, are entirely groundless. The 

1 Suet. 44 ; Plin. H. N. vii. 31. 

8 Cic. Brut. 72 ; Tac. Ann. xiii. 3 ; Quint, x. i. 114. 

3 Meyer, Fr. Or. Rom. p. 404. 4 Nieb. Leet. R. II. xcv. 



378 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

marked similarity between tlie style of the eighth book 
of the Gallic war and that of the Alexandrine war proves 
that they were written by the same author ; and from 
the elegance and purity of the Latinity, and the con- 
fidential footing on which the author must have been 
with Caesar, there is a probability, almost amounting to a 
certainty, that the History of the Alexandrine War must 
be the work of A. Hirtius. It may also be remarked 
that this opinion is in unison with that of Suetonius. 1 

Hirtius was the only one of the three who united in 
himself both these important qualifications. C. Oppius 
was indeed equally in the confidence of Caesar ; he was 
his inseparable companion. 2 But, nevertheless, Oppius 
was not so highly educated as Hirtius. Niebuhr, there- 
fore, is probably correct in attributing to liim, " without 
hesitation," 3 the book on the African war. The intelli- 
gence and information displayed in it are worthy of the 
sensible soldier and confidential friend, with whom he 
corresponded in cipher, and whom he intrusted with 
writing the introduction to his defence in the " Anticato;" 
whilst the inferiority of the language marks a less skilful 
and practised hand than that of the refined Hirtius. 
The book on the Spanish war is by some unknown author : 
it is founded on a diary kept by some one engaged in the 
war; but neither its language nor sentiments are those 
of a liberally-educated person. 4 The Greek term " Ephe- 
merides " has sometimes been applied to the " Commenta- 
ries," though Bayle 5 thought that they were different 
works. 



1 See DodwelTs Dissert, in Cses. Ed. Yar. 

2 The friendship which existed between these great men furnishes an 
anecdote (Suet. V. J. C. 72) characteristic of the most amiable feature in 
Csesar's character, his devoted and hearty attachment to those whom he 
loved. Once, when they were journeying together, they reached a cottage, 
in which only one room was to be procured ; Oppius was ill, and Csesar 
gave up the room to his sick friend, whilst he bivouacked in the open air. 

3 Lect. K. H. xcv. 4 See Niebuhr, Lect. E. H. 5 Smith's Diet, in loco. 



STYLE OF THE COMMENTARIES. 379 

These memoirs are exactly what they profess to he, 
and are written in the most appropriate style. Few 
would wish it to be other than it is. They are sketches 
taken on the spot, in the midst of action, whilst the mind 
was full : they have all the graphic power of a master- 
mind, and the vigorous touches of a master-hand. Take, 
for example, the delineation of the Gallic character, and 
compare it with some of the features still to be found in 
the mixed race, their successors, and no one can doubt of 
its accuracy, or of the deep and penetrating insight into 
human nature which generally indicates the powerful and 
practical intellect. Their elegance and polish is that 
which always must mark even the least-laboured efforts 
of a refined and educated taste, not that which proceeds 
from careful emendation and correction. The " Com- 
mentaries" are the materials for history; notes jotted 
down for future historians. It is evident that no more time 
was spent upon them than would naturally be devoted 
to such a work by one who was employing the inaction 
of winter quarters in digesting the recollections stored up 
during the business of the campaign ; and for this reason 
few faults have been found with the " Commentaries," 
even by the most fastidious critics. The very faults 
which may be justly found with the style of Caesar are 
such as reflect the man himself. The majesty of his 
character principally consists in the imperturbable calm- 
ness and equability of his temper. He had no sudden 
bursts of energy, and alternations of passion and in- 
activity: the elevation of his character was a high one, 
but it was a level table-land. This calmness and equa- 
bility pervades his writings, and for this reason they 
have been thought to want life and energy ; whereas 
in reality they are only deficient in contrast, and light 
and shade. The uniformity of his active character is 
interesting as one great element of his success ; but the 
uniformity of style may perhaps be thought by some 



380 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

readers to diminish the interest with which his work is 
read. 

The simple beanty of his language is, as Cicero says, 
statuesque rather than picturesque. Simple, severe, 
naked — " omni omatu orationis tanquam veste detracto ;' 
and whilst, like a statue, it conveys the idea of perfect 
and well-proportioned beauty, it banishes all thoughts 
of human passion. It was this perfect calm propriety, 
perhaps, this absence of all ornamental display, which 
prevented him from being a successful orator, and his 
orations from surviving, although he had every external 
qualification for a speaker * — a fine voice, graceful action, 
a noble and majestic appearance, and a frank and brilliant 
delivery. 

The very few instances of doubtful Latinity which a 
hypercritical spirit may detect are scarcely blemishes, and 
fewer than might have been expected from the observation 
of Hirtius, 2 " Ceteri quam bene at que emendate, nos etiam, 
quam facile ac celeriter eos perscripserit, scimus." When 
A. Pollio 3 called his " Commentaries " hasty, his criticism 
was fan ; but he was scarcely just in blaming the ^yriter 
for inaccuracy and credulity. These faults, so far as they 
existed, were due to circumstances, not to himself. His 
observing mind wished to collect information with respect 
to the foreign lands which were the field of his exploits, 
and the habits of the inhabitants, quite as much as to 
describe his own tactics and victories. He naturally 
accepted the accounts given him, even when he had no 
means of testing their veracity. He is, therefore, not 
to blame for recording those which subsequent discoveries 
have shown to be untrue. 

His digressions of this character yield in interest to no 
portion of his work ; and though some of his accounts of 
the Grauls and Germans are incorrect, many were sub- 



Brut. 71, 72, 75. 2 Prsef. to book viii. 3 Suet. 56. 



i esar's modesty overrated. 381 

sequently confirmed by the investigations of Tacitus. 
The only quality in the character of Caesar which has 
been sometimes exaggerated is modesty. He does not, 
indeed, add to his own reputation by detracting from the 
merits of those who served under him. He is honest, 
generous, and candid, not only towards them, but also 
towards his brave barbarian enemies. Nor is he guilty 
of egotism in tlie strict literal sense of the term. This, 
however, is scarcely enough to warrant the eulogy which 
some have founded upon it. He has too good taste to 
recount his successes with pretension and arrogance ; but 
he has evidently no objection to be the hero of his own 
tale. He skilfully veils his selfish, unpatriotic, and 
ambitious motives ; and his object evidently is to leave 
such niernoirs, that future historiaus may be able to hand 
down the most favourable character of Caesar to posterity. 

Though himself is his subject, his memoirs are not 
confessions. Xot a record of a weakness appears, nor 
even of a defect, except that which the Eomans would 
readily forgive, cruelty. His savage waste of human life 
he recounts with perfect self-complacency. Vanity was 
his crowning error in his career as a statesman ; and 
though hidden by the reserve with which he speaks of 
himself, sometimes discovers itself in the historian. 

The " Commentaries " of Caesar have sometimes been 
compared with the work of the great soldier-historian of 
Greece, Xenophon. Both are eminently simple and un- 
affected; but there the parallel ends. The severe con- 
tempt of ornament which characterizes the stern Eoman 
is totally unlike the mellifluous sweetness of the Attic 
writer. 

The " Anticatones " l were two books in answer to 

Cicero's panegyric of Cato, which he had written imme- 

. diately after the philosopher's death. Hirtius first, at 



Juv. vi. 338 ; Suet. 56 ; Gell. iv. 16 ; Cic. Div. ii. 9. 



382 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

the request of Caesar, wrote a reply, and sent it to Cicero 
from Narbonne. Although he denied the justice of 
Cicero's eulogium, he secured the good- will of the orator 
himself by liberal commendations. 1 This prepared the 
way for Caesar's own pamphlet. 

His philological work, de Analogia, or de Ratione Latine 
Loquendi, is commended by Cicero 2 for its extreme ac- 
curacy, and was held in high estimation by the Roman 
grammarians. Probably, in liveliness and originality it 
was far superior to any of their works. Wonderful to 
say, it was written during the difficulties and occupations 
of a journey across the Alps. From the quotations from 
it, in the writings of the grammarians, we learn that he 
proposed that the letter Y should be written ii, to mark 
its connexion with the Greek digamma ; and that the 
new orthography, which substituted lacrimce for lucrumce, 
maximus for maxumus, &c, was established by his au- 
thority. 

The " Apophthegmata " is said to have been a collection 
of wise and witty sayings by liimself and others, although 
it is remarkable not a single witty saying of Caesar is on 
record. 3 He began it early in life, and was continually 
making additions to it. 

His poetical attempts consisted of a tragedy entitled 
" OEdipus ;" a short piece, the subject of which was the 
praises of Hercules (both of these, as well as the Apo- 
phthegmata, were suppressed by Augustus) ; " Iter," an 
account of his march into Spain ; the astronomical poem 
already mentioned ; and some epigrams of which three 
are extant, although their authenticity is somewhat 
doubtful. 5 

1 Ad Att. xii. 40, 41, 44, 45.; xiii. 37, 40, 48, 50. 2 Cic. Brut. 72. 

3 See Nieb. L. R. H. xcv. ; Suet. 66 ; Cic. ad Fam. ix. 16. 

4 Meyer's Lat. Anthol. 68, 69, 70. 

5 A. Gellius tells us (xvii. 9) that lie was the author of Letters to Oppius, 
written in cipher, of which he gives the following interesting descrip- 
tion : — " Erat conventum inter eos clandestinum de commutando situ 



CHARACTER OF CyESAR. 383 

The character of Csesar is full of inconsistencies; but 
they are the inconsistencies which are natural to man, 
and are sometimes found in men of a strong will and 
commanding' talents who are destitute of moral principle. 
His faults and excellences, his capability and talents, 
were the result of his natural powers — not of pains or 
study. He was one of the greatest as well as one of the 
worst nien who ever lived. He was an Epicurean in 
faith, and yet he had all the superstition which so often 
accompanies infidelity. His habitual humanity and 
clemency towards his fellow-citizens were interrupted by 
instances of stern and pitiless cruelty. He shed tears 
at the assassination of Pompey, and yet could massacre 
the Usipetes and the Tenchteri, and acted like a savage 
barbarian towards his chivalrous foe Yercingetorix. He 
delighted in the pure and refined pleasures of literature, 
and his intimate associates were men of taste and genius ; 
and yet he was the slave of his sensual passions, and 
indulged in the grossest profligacy. He was candid, 
friendly, confiding, generous; but he was attracted by 
brilliant talents, and the qualities of the head, rather than 
the affections of the heart. The mainspring of his con- 
duct as a general and a statesman exhibits a strong will 
and perfect self-reliance ; and in like manner he owes 
the energy of his style of writing, and the persuasive 
force of his oratory, to the influence of no other minds : 
they are the natural fruit of clear perceptions, a pene- 
trating intellect, an observing mind capable of taking a 
wide and comprehensive view of its subject. Men of varied 
acquirements and extensive knowledge, but of pedantic 
taste, are said to talk like books, the writings of Csesar, 
on the contrary, are like lively and unconstrained con- 



literarum ut inscriptio quidem alia alius locum et nomen teneret sed in 
legendo locus cuique suus et potestas restitueretur." Suetonius (Vit. Caes. 
56) describes in the same way the nature of the cipher which he used, and 
illustrates it by saying that he used to put d for a and so forth. 



384 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

versation : they have all the reality which constitutes 
the great charm of his character. 

He was above affectation, for his was a mind born to 
lead the age in which he lived, not to think with others 
merely in deference to established usage and custom ; and 
although his natural vanity and self-confidence led him 
to set his own character in the most favourable light, his 
vanity was honest : he had no intention wilfully to 
deceive. His wonderful memory fitted him for the task 
of faithfully recording the events in which he himself 
was an actor ; and his power of attention and abstraction, 
which enabled him to write, converse, and dictate at the 
same time, shows how -valuable must be a work on which 
were concentrated at once all the energies of his pene- 
trating mind. 



so 



( 885 ) 



CHAPTER XII. 

LIFE OF SALLUST — HIS INSINCERITY — HIS HISTORICAL WORKS — 
HE WAS A BITTER OPPONENT OF THE NEW ARISTOCRACY — 
PROFLIGACY OF THAT ORDER — HIS STYLE COMPARED WITH 
THAT OF THUCYDIDES — HIS VALUE AS AN HISTORIAN — TROGUS 
POMPEIUS — HIS HISTORIC PHILIPPICS. 

C. Sallustius Crispus (born b.c. 85). 

C. Sallustius Crispus was fifteen years junior to Caesar : 
he was born at Amitemum, 1 in the territory of the 
Sabines, a.u.c. 669, b.c. 85. He was a member of 
a plebeian family ; but, having served the offices of tribune 
and quaestor, attained senatorial rank. In a.u.c. 704, 
he was expelled from the senate 2 by the censors Ap. 
Claudius Pulcher and L. Calpurnius Piso. 3 It is said 
that, although he was " a most severe censurer of the 
licentiousness of others, 5 ' 4 he was a profligate man himself, 
and that the scandal of an intrigue with Fausta, the 
daughter of Sulla and the wife of Milo, was the cause of 
his degradation. 

Through the influence of Caesar, whose party he es- 
poused, he was restored to his rank, and subsequently 
became praetor. He accompanied his patron in the 
African war, and was made governor of Numidia. 
Whilst in that capacity, he accumulated by rapacity and 
extortion enormous wealth, 5 which he lavished on ex- 



1 Matth. H. L. 2 Heind. on Hor. Sat. p. 40. a Dion. Cas. xi. 63. 
' Macjob. Saturn, ii. 9. 5 Dion, xliii. 9. 

2 C 



386 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

pensive but tasteful luxury. The gardens on the Quirinal 
which bore his name were celebrated for their beauty; 
and beneath their alleys, and porticoes, surrounded by the 
choicest works of art, he avoided the tumultuous scenes 
of civil strife which ushered in the empire, and devoted 
his retirement to composing the historical records which 
survived him. His death took place B.C. 35. 

Those who have wished to defend the character of 
Sallust from the charges of immorality, to which allusion 
has been made, have attributed them to the groundless 
calumnies of Lenseus, a freedman of Csesar's great rival 
Pompey. It is not improbable that his faults may 
have been exaggerated by the malevolence of party- spirit 
in those factious times ; but there are no sentiments in 
his works which can constitute a defence of him. If an 
historian is distinguished by a high moral tone of feeling, 
this quality cannot but show itself in his writings without 
intention or design. But in Sallust there is always an 
affectation and pretence of morality without the reality. 
His philosopliical reflections at the commencement of 
the Jugurthine and Catilinarian wars are empty, cold, and 
heartless. There is a display of commonplace sentiment, 
and an expressed admiration of the old Eoman virtue of 
bygone days, but no appearance of sincerity. The lan- 
guage may be pointed enough to produce an effect upon 
the ear, but the sentiments always fail to probe the 
recesses of the heart. Sallust lived in an immoral and 
corrupt age ; and though, perhaps, he was not amongst 
the worst of his contemporaries, he had not sufficient 
strength of principle to resist the force of example and 
temptation. 

It is almost certain that, as a provincial governor, 
Sallust was not more unscrupulous than others of his 
class ; but wealth such as he possessed could not have 
been acquired except by extortion and maladministration. 
As a politician, he was equally unsatisfactory : he was a 



DEFECTS AND MERITS OF SALLUST. 387 

mere partisan of Caesar, and, therefore, a strenuous oppo- 
nent of the higher classes as supporters of Pompey ; but 
he was not an honest champion of popular rights, nor was 
he capable of understanding the meaning of patriotism. 
If, however, we make some allowance for the political 
Mas of Sallust, which is evident throughout his works, 
his histories have not only the charms of the historical 
romance, but are also valuable political studies. His 
characters are vigorously and naturally drawn, as though 
he not only personally knew them, but accurately under- 
stood them. The more his histories are read, the more 
will it be discovered that he always writes with an object. 
He eschews the very idea of a mere dry chronicle of 
facts, and uses his facts as the means of enforcing a great 
political lesson. 

For this reason, like Thucydides, whom he evidently 
took as his model, not only in style but in the use of 
his materials, his speeches are his own compositions. 
Even when he had an opportunity, as in the case of 
Caesar's and Cato's speeches in the " BellumCatilinarium" 
he contented himself with giving the substance of them, 
clothed it in his own language, and embodied in them 
his own sentiments. According to his own statement, 
there is one exception to his practice in this respect. 
He asserts that the speech of Memmius, the tribune 
of the people, 1 is the very one which he delivered. If 
this be really the case, it is a most valuable example 
of the style in which a popular leader addressed his 
audience. But it is to be feared that this is not strictly 
and literally true : the style is, indeed, somewhat different 
from that of the other speeches, but does not exhibit 
freedom enough to assure us that he has actually reported 
it as delivered. It may be only a specimen of that con- 
summate skill which constitutes the principal charm of 



1 Jug. c. 30. 

2 c 2 



388 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Sallust's manner, and made him a complete master of 
composition. Sallust never attempted anything more 
than detached portions of Roman history. " I have 
determined," he says, "to write only select portions of 
Roman history " (carptim perscribere). 1 He himself 
gives an explanation of his motives for so doing, 2 when 
he complains of the manner in which this department 
of literature was neglected. Wherever a satisfactory 
account existed, he thought it unnecessary to travel over 
the same ground a second time. 

His first work, reckoning according to the chronological 
order of events, is the Jugurthine war, which commenced 
B.C. Ill, and ended B.C. 106. The next period, com- 
prehending the Social war and the war of Sulla, extending 
as far as the consulship of M. iEmilius Lepidus, b.c 78, 
had already been related by Sisenna, a friend of Cicero. 3 
Where Sisenna left off, the Histories of Sallust (His- 
toriarum Libri V.), began, and continued the narrative 
without interruption until the prsetorship of Cicero. 4 This 
work is unfortunately lost, with the exception of some 
letters and speeches, and a few fragments relating to the 
war of Spartacus. Niebuhr 5 considers this one of the most 
deplorable losses in Roman literature ; less, however, on 
account of its historical importance, than as a perfect 
model of historical composition. A break of two years 
ensues, and then follows the " Bellum Catilinarium" or 
history of the Catilinarian conspiracy in the year of 
Cicero's consulship. 6 

This completes the list of those works which are un- 
doubtedly genuine. No satisfactory opinion has been 
arrived at respecting the authorship of the two letters to 
Csesar, " De Republicd Ordinanda ;" and it is now un- 
hesitatingly admitted, that the declamation against Cicero 



Cat. iv. 2 Bel. Cat. vii. 3 De Leg. i. 2 ; Brut. 64. 

4 b. c. 66. 5 Lect. R. H. lxxxviii. 6 b. c. 63. 



SOCIAL CONDITION OF ROME. 389 

must have been, as well as its counterpart the declama- 
tion against Sallust, the work of some rhetorical writer 
of a later period. The subject of this imaginary dis- 
putation was naturally suggested by the known fact that 
►Sallust was no friend to Cicero. 

It has already been stated, that Sallust was a bitter 
opponent of the principles and policy of the aristocratic 
party ; but it must be carefully explained what is meant 
by that assertion. The object of his hatred was not the 
old patrician blood of Koine, but the new aristocracy, 
which had of late years been rapidly rising up and dis- 
placing it. 

This new nobility was utterly corrupt ; and their cor- 
ruption was encouraged by the venality of the masses, 
whose poverty and destitution tempted them to be the 
tools of unscrupulous ambition. Everything at Eome, 
as Juvenal said in later times, had its price. Sallust adds 
to the severity of his strictures upon his countrymen by 
the force of contrast; he represents even Jugurtha as 
asserting that the republic itself might be bought if a 
purchaser could be found; and paints the barbarian as 
more honest and upright than his conquerors. The 
ruined and abandoned associates of Catiline represented 
a numerous class among the younger members of the 
upper classes, who, by lives devoted to lawless pleasures, 
had become ruined, reckless, and demoralized. They 
were ripe for revolution, because they had nothing to 
lose : they could not gratify their vicious propensities 
without wealth ; they had no principles or scruples as to 
the means of acquiring it ; their best prospects were in 
anarchy, proscription, and confiscation. The debauched 
and ruined nobleman, and the vulgar profligate of the 
lowest class, forgot their mutual differences, and thus a 
combination was formed, the members of which were the 
sink and outscourings of society. 

Such degenerate profligacy is an ample justification of 



390 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Sallust's hatred towards the new aristocracy; and the 
object of all his works evidently was to place that party 
in the unfavourable light which it deserved. In the 
Jugurthine war he describes the unworthiness of the 
foreign policy of Eome under its maladministration. 
His " Histories," according to the statement of Mebuhr, 
describe the popular resistance to the revolutionary 
policy of Sulla, the profligate leader of the same party ; 
and in the " Catilinarian War" he paints in vivid colours 
the depravity of that order of society, who, bankrupt in 
fortune and dead to all honourable feelings, still plumed 
themselves on their rank and exclusiveness. Neverthe- 
less, notwithstanding the truthfulness of the picture 
which Sallust draws, selfishness and not patriotism was 
the mainspring of his politics ; and it is scarcely possible 
to avoid seeing that he is anxious to set himself off to 
the best advantage. His hollo wness is that of a vain 
and conceited man, who measures himself by too high a 
standard, and appears chagrined and disappointed that 
others do not estimate him as highly as he does himself. 
These are the blots in his character as a man and a 
citizen ; but we must not forget his real merits as an 
historian. To him must be conceded the praise of 
having first conceived the notion of a history in the true 
sense of the term. He saw the lamentable defects in the 
abortive attempts made by his predecessors j 1 and the 
model was a good one which he left for his successors to 
follow. It is scarcely too much to suppose, that if it had 
not been for Sallust, Livy might not have been led to 
conceive his vast and comprehensive plan. He was the 
first Eoman historian, and the guide to future historians. 
Again, his style, although almost ostentatiously elaborate 
and artificial, and not without affectation, is, upon the 
whole, pleasing, and almost always transparently clear. 

1 Cat. vii , 



STYLE OF SALLUST. 891 

The caution of Qiiintilian respecting his well-known 
brevity (" vitanda est ilia Sallustiana brevitas" 1 ) is well- 
timed in his work, as being addressed to orators, for 
public speaking necessarily requires a more diffuse style ; 
and it is probable that Quintilian would not appreciate 
its merits, because he himself was a rhetorician, and his 
taste was formed in a rhetorical age. Seneca, for the 
same reasons, finds similar faults, not only with Sallust, 
but with the favourite literature of his day. " When 
Sallust flourished, abrupt sentences, unexpected cadences, 
obscure expressions, were considered signs of a cultivated 
taste/' 2 But the brevity of Sallust does not produce the 
effect of harsh or disagreeable abruptness, whilst it keeps 
the attention awake, and impresses the facts upon the 
memory. How powerful and suggestive, for example, 
how abundant in material for thought, are those few words 
in which he describes Pompey as " oris probi, animo 
inverecundo I" There is, however, this difference between 
the brevity of Sallust and that of his supposed model, 
Thucydides. That of the Greek historian was natural 
and involuntary ; that of the Eoman intentional and the 
result of imitation. Thucydides thought more quickly 
than he could write : his closely-packed ideas and con- 
densed constructions, therefore, constitute a species of 
short-hand, by which alone he could keep pace with the 
rapidity of his intellect. He is, therefore, always vigor- 
ous and suggestive; and the necessities of the case 
make the reader readily pardon the difficulties of his 
style. 

The brevity of Thucydides is the result of condensa- 
tion ; that of Sallust is elliptical expression. He gives a 
hint, and the reader must supply the rest ; whilst Thu- 
cydides only expects his readers to unfold and develop 
ideas which already existed in a concentrated form. 



1 Quint. I. 0. x. 1. " 2 Ep. cxiv. 



392 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Sallust requires addition; Thycidides dilution and ex- 
pansion. Neither does the brevity of Sallust resemble 
that of Caesar or of Tacitus : the former was straight- 
forward and business-like, requiring neither addition nor 
expansion, because he wished to make his statements as 
clearly as they were capable of being expressed, without 
ornament or exaggeration. He was brief, because he 
never wished to say more than was absolutely necessary, 
and therefore his brevity is the very cause of perspicuity. 
The mind of Tacitus was, from its thoughtfulness and 
philosophical character, the very counterpart of that of 
Thucydides : his brevity was therefore natural, and the 
result of the same causes. 

There is one point of view in which Sallust is inva- 
luable as an historian. He had always an object to which 
he wished all his facts to converge : he brought forward, 
his facts as illustrations and developments of principles. 
He analysed and exposed the motives of parties, and the 
secret springs which actuated the conduct of individuals, 
and laid bare the inner life of those great actors on the 
public stage, in the interesting historical scenes which he 
undertakes to describe. 

Trogus Pompeius. 

Trogus Pompeius was a voluminous historian of the 
Augustan age, whose father was private secretary to 
Julius CaBsar. 1 His work was of such vast extent, and 
embraced so great a variety of subjects, that it has even 
been termed by Justin, who published a large collection 
of extracts from it, an Universal History. Its title, how- 
ever, " Historice Philippicw" proves the writer's primary 
object was the history of the Macedonian monarchy, 
together with the kingdoms which arose out of it at the 
death of Alexander ; and that all the rest of the informa- 



Justin, xliii, 5. 



HISTORY OF TROGUS POMPEIUS. 393 

tion contained in it were digressions into which he was 
naturally led, and episodes incidentally introduced into 
the main stream of the history. 

For the materials contained in his work, which con- 
sisted of forty-four books, he was indebted to the Greek 
historians ; but especially to Theopompus of Chios, 1 from 
whose principal work he derived the title, " Philippica" 
as well as the practice of branching out into long and fre- 
quent digressions. It is easy to imagine over how vast 
an area a history of the Macedonian empire was capable of 
extending. The subjugation of the East by the conquests 
of Alexander naturally made a rapid sketch of the 
Assyrian, Median, and Persian empires, an appropriate 
introduction to the work : the connexion of Persia with 
Greece and Egypt furnished an opportunity of embody- 
ing the records of Greek history, and a description of 
Egypt and its inhabitants. Once embarked in Greek 
history, the writer pursued it until it became interwoven, 
through the interference of Philip, with the affairs of 
Macedon. Alexander and his successors succeed: the 
campaigns of Pyrrhus bring the Eomans upon the stage ; 
Carthage and Sicily for a while occupy the scene ; and the 
main body of the work is completed by a sketch of the 
gradual consolidation of that vast empire, of which sub- 
jugated Macedonia became a province. Nor is this all — 
other less important nations, cities, and states are ever 
and anon introduced, according as they act their part in 
the great drama of history. 



Born b. c. 378. 



394 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

LIFE OF LIVY — HIS OBJECT IN WRITING HIS HISTORY — ITS 
SPIRIT AND CHARACTER — LIVY PRECISELY SUITED TO HIS 
AGE — NOT WILFULLY INACCURATE — HIS POLITICAL BIAS 
ACCOUNTED FOR — MATERIALS WHICH HE MIGHT HAVE USED 
— SOURCES OF HIS HISTORY — HIS DEFECTS AS AN HISTORIAN 
— HIS STYLE — GRAMMARIANS — VITRUVIUS POLLIO AN AU- 
GUSTAN WRITER — CONTENTS OF HIS WORK. 

T. Liyius Patayinus (born b. c. 59). 

The biographical records of many great literary men of 
Eome are most meagre and unsatisfactory. Modern 
critics who have written their lives have drawn largely 
npon their own imaginations for their materials ; whilst 
all the information to be derived from ancient writers is 
often comprised in a few vague allusions and notices. 
Some of these have been misunderstood, and from others 
unwarrantable deductions have been derived. These ob- 
servations are particularly applicable to him who is the 
only illustrious Eoman historian in the Augustan age. 

Universal tradition assigns to Patavium (Padua) the 
honour of being the birthplace of Titus Livius ; but not- 
withstanding the general belief, some doubt has been 
thrown upon the fact by an epigram of Martial. 1 He 
came to Pome during the reign of Augustus, where he 
resided in the enjoyment of the imperial favour and 
patronage. 2 He was a warm and open admirer of the 
ancient institutions of the country, and esteemed Pompey 



1 Ep. I. 62. 2 Tac. Ann. iv. 34. 



BIOGRAPHY OF LIVY. 395 

as one of its greatest heroes ; but Augustus, with his 
usual liberality, did not allow political opinions to inter- 
fere with the regard which he entertained for the his- 
torian. Livy had a great admiration for oratory, and 
advised his son to study the writings of Demosthenes 
and Cicero. 1 At his recommendation the stupid Claudius 
wrote history ; 2 and it has even been asserted, though on 
insufficient authority, that he was his instructor. His 
fame rapidly spread beyond the limits of Italy, for Pliny 
the younger 3 relates that an inhabitant of Cadiz came to 
Eome for the express purpose of seeing him ; a fact which 
St. Jerome 4 expands into an assertion that many noble 
Grauls and Spaniards were attracted to the capital, far 
more by the reputation of Livy than by the splendour of 
the imperial city. 

His great work is a history of Eome, which he modestly 
terms " Annals," in one hundred and forty-two books, 
preceded by a brief but elaborately- written preface, 5 and 
extending from the earliest traditions to the death of 
Drusus. 6 Of this history thirty-five books are extant, 
winch were discovered at different periods. 7 Of the rest 
we have only dry and meagre epitomes, drawn up by 
some uncertain author, and of these two are lost. 8 Besides 
his History, Livy is said 9 to have written books which 
professed to be philosophical, and dialogues, the subjects 
of which are partly philosophical and partly historical. 
Late in life he returned to Patavium, and there died 
a. d. 18, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. 10 He left 
one son and one daughter, who married L. Magius, a 
teacher of rhetoric, of no great talent, who owed his re- 
putation principally to his connexion with the historian. 11 

Livy had one great object in view in writing his His- 



1 Quint, x. i. 39. 2 Suet. V. CI. 41. 3 Ep. II. 3. 

4 Nisard, ii. 405. 5 Lib. xliii. 13. 6 b. c. 9. 

~> See Smith's Biog. ii. 791. 8 Viz., 136 and 137. 9 Sen. Suasor. 100. 

'" Euseb. Chron. " Sen. Proem, to Controv. V. 



396 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

tory, namely, to celebrate the glories of his native country, 
to which he was devotedly attached. He was a patriot : 
his sympathy was with Pompey, called forth by the dis- 
interestedness of that great man, and perhaps by his sad 
end, after having so long enjoyed universal popularity. 
The character of the historian would lead us to suppose 
that his attachment was personal rather than political, 
for the general spirit of his work shows that he was a 
man of pure mind and gentle feelings. He began his 
great work about nine or ten years before the Christian 
era, a period singularly favourable for such a design. The 
passages in which especially he delights to put forth his 
powers, and on which he dwells with the greatest zest, 
show the truth of Quintilian's well-known criticism, " that 
he is especially the historian of the affections, particularly 
of the softer sensibilities." 1 A lost battle is misery to 
him ; he trembles at the task of relating it. Nor does 
he appear to have been a stern republican. He could 
admire enthusiastically, and describe with spirit, the noble 
qualities and self-devotion which the old republican 
freedom fostered; but his object is rather to paint the 
heroes, and to give graphic representations of the 
struggles which they maintained in defence of liberty, 
than to show any love of liberty in the abstract, or a predi- 
lection for any particular form of constitution. To Livy 
political struggles were no more than subjects for pic- 
turesque delineations, the moral of which was the elevation 
of national grandeur, just as successful foreign wars were 
the records of national glory. Hence he is a biographer 
quite as much as an historian : he anatomizes the moral 
nature of his heroes, and shows their inner man, and the 
motive springs of their noble exploits. This gives to his 
narratives the charm of an historical romance, and makes 
up for the want of accurate research and political observa- 



Inst. Or. x. 1. 



LIT* PRECISELY SUITED TO 1TTS ACK. 307 

tion. His characters stand before us objectively, like 
epic heroes ; and thus he is " the Homer of the Eoman 
people," whilst the charm of his narratives makes him the 
" Herodotus of Eoman historians." 

Borne was now the mistress of the world : her struggles 
with foreign nations had been rewarded with universal 
dominion; so that when the Eoman empire was spoken 
of, no title less comprehensive than " the world" (orbis) 
woidd satisfy the national vanity. The horrors of civil 
war had ceased, and were succeeded by an amnesty of its 
bitter feuds and bloody animosities. Liberty indeed had 
perished, but the people were no longer fit for the enjoy- 
ment of it ; and it was exchanged for a mild and paternal 
rule, under which all the refinements of civilization were 
encouraged, and its subjects could enjoy undisturbed the 
blessings of peace and security. 

Eome, therefore, had rest and breathing-time to look 
back into the past — to trace the successive steps by which 
that marvellous edifice, the Eoman empire, had been con- 
structed. She could do this, too, with perfect self-com- 
placency, for there was no symptom of decay to check 
her exultation, or to mar the glories which she was 
contemplating. 

Livy, the good, the affectionate, the romantic, was pre- 
cisely the popular historian for such times as these. His 
countrymen looked naturally for panegyric rather than 
for criticism. They were not in a temper to bear one 
who could remorselessly tear open and expose to view all 
the faults and blemishes which blotted the pages of their 
history ; who could be a morose and querulous praiser of 
times gone by, never to return, at the expense of their 
present greatness and prosperity. He lived in happy 
times, before Eome had learnt by sad experience what 
the tyranny of absolutism really was. He tells his story 
like a bard singing his lay at a joyous and festive meet- 
ing, chequered by alternate successes and reverses, pros- 



398 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

perity and adversity, but all tending to a happy end at 
last. These features of his character, and this object of 
his work, whilst they constitute his peculiar charm as a 
narrator, obviously render him less valuable as an historian. 
Although he was not tasteless and spiritless, like Dionysius, 
he was not so trustworthy. He would not be wilfully 
inaccurate, or otherwise than truth-telling; but if the 
legend he was about to tell was captivating and interest- 
ing, he would not stop to inquire whether or no it was 
true. He would take upon trust the traditions which 
had been handed down from generation to generation 
without inquiry; and the more flattering and popular 
they were, the more suitable would he deem them for 
his purpose. Without being himself necessarily super- 
stitious, he would see that superstitious marvels added to 
the embelhshments of his story, and, therefore, would 
accept them without pronouncing upon their truth or 
falsehood. 

Wilful unfairness can never be attributed to Livy : he 
was prejudiced, but he was not party-spirited. He loved 
his country and his countrymen, and could scarcely per- 
suade himself of the possibility of their doing wrong. He 
could scarcely believe anything derogatory to the national 
glory. When (to take a striking example), in the case of 
the treaty with Porsena, there were two opposite stories, 
he was led by this partiality to ignore the well-authen- 
ticated fact of the capture of Eome, and to adopt that 
account which was most creditable to his countrymen. 1 
Whenever Eome was false to treaties, unmerciful in vic- 
tory, or unsuccessful in arms, he is always anxious to 
find excuses. His predilections are evidently aristocratic ; 
and although he states the facts fairly, he wishes his 
reader to sympathise with the patricians. 

The plebeians of the days in which he lived were not 



1 See Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 39, and Tac. Hist. iii. 72. 



STATE OF THE LOWER ORDERS. 399 

the fair representatives of that enterprising class in the 
early ages of the republic, who were as well born as the 
patricians, although of different blood ; the strength and 
sinew r s of the state in its exhausting wars — dependent only 
upon them from stern necessity, because they were ground 
down to the dust by poverty, and debt, and oppression, 
but independently maintaining themselves by their own 
industry, gradually acquiring wealth, rising to the position 
of a middle class, waning their way perseveringly, step 
by step, to political privileges. 

The lower orders of Borne, in the time of Livy, for the 
term plebeian, in its original sense, was no longer ap- 
plicable, were debased and degraded ; they cared not for 
liberty, or political power, or self-government ; their 
bosoms throbbed not with sympathy for the old plebeians, 
who retired to Mount Sacer, and shed their blood for 
their principles. It was difficult, therefore, for him not 
to believe that the popular leaders of old times were un- 
principled men, who sought to repair their fortunes by 
the arts of the demagogue. In his eyes resistance to 
tyranny was treason and rebellion. 1 But when, as in the 
story of Virginia, his gentler affections were enlisted, 
Livy's heart warmed with a generous admiration towards 
the champions of the people's rights, and his political 
predilections gave way to his sensibilities. In treating 
of history almost contemporaneous, Tacitus confesses his 
liberality. Although it might have rendered him more 
acceptable at the court of his patron if he had vilified Ins 
political foes, yet even imperial favour, acting on the 
same side as political prejudice, did not tempt him to un- 
fairness. 2 He could see and acknowledge noble qualities 
and disinterested patriotism, and give credit for sincere 
motives, even to those who differed in political opinions. 

1 See i. 50 ; iv. 35 ; vi. 27. 

1 Augustus, according to Tacitus (Ann. iv. 3), thought Livy so violent a 
Pompeian that he once forbade one of his grandsons to read his history. 



400 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

From a character such as has been described, much 
care is not to be expected as to the sources from which 
historical information was derived. Many original docu- 
ments must have existed in his day, which he evidently 
never took the trouble to consult. A rich treasure of 
original monuments relating to foreign and domestic 
affairs were ready at hand, which might have been ex- 
amined without much trouble. 1 The great Annals of the 
Pontifex Maximus were digested into eighty books ; and 
these contained the names of the magistrates, all memorable 
events at home and abroad — even the very days on which 
they occurred being marked. The commentaries not 
only of the priests and augurs, but of the civil magis- 
trates, were kept with exactness and regularity. There 
is no reason for supposing that the Libri Lintei 2 were 
lost in Livy's time, although he quotes from Licinius 
Macer, 3 instead of consulting them himself. Three thou- 
sand brazen tablets, on which were engraved acts of the 
senate and the plebeians, extending backwards (says 
Suetonius 4 ) almost to the building of the city, existed in 
the Capitol until it was burnt in the reign of Vespasian. 
The corpus of civil law, which is known to have existed 
in the time of Cicero, 5 was full of antiquarian lore ; and 
the twelve tables furnished invaluable information, not 
only on language, but on the manners and habits of 
bygone times. Nevertheless, the fragments of the Leges 
Regice and the laws of the twelve tables have been more 
carefully examined by critics of modern times than they 
were by Livy, when they existed in a more perfect con- 
dition. 

Lachmann 6 has satisfactorily shown that the assertions 
of Livy are not based upon personal investigation, but 



1 Cic. Or. ii. 12 ; Quint, x. 2, 7 ; Serv. in ^3n. i. 373. 

2 See Arnold's Hist, of Rome. 3 Lib. x. 38 ; iv. 7, 23. 
4 Vesp. 8. See also Tac. Hist. iii. 71. 3 Or. i. 43. 

6 Com. de Font. Hist. Liv. 



SOURCES OF THE HISTORY OF LIVY. 401 

that he trusted to the annalists, and took advantage of 
the researches of preceding historians. This is all that he 

himself professes to do ; and even these professions he does 
not always satisfactorily perform. He does not appear to 
have profited by the Annals of Varro or the Origines of 
Cato, a work which, according to the testimony of Cicero, 
must have been invaluable to an historian ; and although 
the Arehaeologia of Dionysius were published about the 
time at which Livy commenced his history, 1 there is no 
evidence that he makes use of it ; certainly he never ac- 
knowledges any obligation to the indefatigable researches 
of the Greek historian. According to his own confession, 2 
Roman history is total darkness until the capture of Rome 
by the Gauls ; and although a dim light then begins to 
break, a twilight period succeeds, which continues until 
the first Punic war. But it cannot be asserted that he 
prepared liimself for his difficult task as he ought, or took 
advantage of all the means at his disposal to enlighten 
the obscurity in which his subject was involved. The 
authorities on which he principally depends for the con- 
tents of the first Decade were such as Ennius, Fab. Pictor, 
Cincius, and Piso. It is evident that he also consulted 
Greek writers. In the third, which contains the most 
beautiful and elaborate passages of the whole work, he 
follows Polybius. Nor could he, in this portion of his 
history, follow a safer one. The Romans, notwithstand- 
ing all their practical tendencies, did little to promote 
geographical science. It is amongst the Greeks that we 
find the most accurate and indefatigable geographers, such 
as were Polybius, Strabo, and Ptolemy. 

Polybius prepared liimself for the task of narrating the 
Italian campaign of Hannibal by personal inspection. 
Livy did nothing of the kind. The former travelled 



Vide Niebuhr (Lect. on Eom. Lit. vii.), who takes the opposite view. 
Lib. ii. 21 ; iv. 7 ; vi. 1. 

2 1) 



402 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

through the Alpine passes ; and his authority was con- 
sidered so good that Strabo implicitly followed him. It 
is to be lamented that, as he was writing to his country- 
men, he seldom mentions the names of places ; probably 
he thought they would not be the wiser for the enumera- 
tion of unknown barbarian names. But his accuracy in 
dates and distances enables us to trace Hannibal's route 
with correctness. These prove that the passage of Han- 
nibal was by the Alpis Grraia, the Little St. Bernard ; a 
statement which had been made by that veracious 1 his- 
torian, Caelius Antipater, and also by Cornelius ISTepos. 2 
Ifc has been since confirmed by the researches of modern 
travellers, such as General Melville, M. de Luc, Cramer, 
and Wiekham. Strange to say, Livy, although following 
the route marked out by Polybius almost step by step, 
at length ends it with the Alpis Cottia (M. Grenevre). 
The absence of names left the fireside traveller at fault. 
Csesar 3 had crossed the Alps by that pass ; and, perhaps, 
Livv named it at a venture, as the most familiar to hnn. 
In the succeeding portions of his work, so complete is the 
confidence which he reposes upon the guidance of Poly- 
bius, that the fourth and fifth Decades are little more 
than the history of Polybius paraphrased. 

Niebuhr, 4 from internal evidence, gives an interesting 
account of the manner in which it is probable that Livy 
wrote his history. He supposes that, like most of the 
ancients, he employed a secretary, who read to him from 
existing authorities the events of a single year. These 
the historian mentally arranged, and then dictated his 
own narrative. The work, therefore, was composed in 
portions ; the connexion of the events of one year with 



1 Val. Max. i. 7 ; ad Att. xiii. 8. 

2 V. Harm. 22. Cornelius Nepos says that the Alpis Graia derived its 
name from Hercules having passed by that route. Probably the real 
derivation of the epithet is the root of the German " Grau." 

3 Bell. Gall. i. 11. 4 R. L. Lect. viii. 



DEFICIENCIES OF LIVY. 403 

those of the preceding one was lost sight of, and thus 
they seem isolated ; and the conclusion of a series of events 
sometimes unaccountably synchronizes with the conclusion 
of a year. 

To his deficiencies in the habit of diligent and accurate 
investigation are added others which singularly disqualify 
him for the task of a faithful historian. He was a reader 
of books rather than a student of men and things : he took 
upon trust what other people told him, instead of acquir- 
ing knowledge in a practical manner. He was ill-ac- 
quainted with the history of foreign countries. He was 
not, like Caesar, a soldier ; and therefore his descriptions of 
military affairs are often vague and indistinct, for he did 
not understand the tactics which he professed to describe. 
He was not, like Thucydides, a politician or a philosopher ; 
and hence the little trustworthy information which we 
derive from him on questions connected with constitu- 
tional changes. He did not fit himself, like Herodotus, 
by travelling ; and thus he is often ignorant of the locali- 
ties which he describes, even though they are within the 
limits of Italy. Hence the difficulties in the way of un- 
derstanding the route of Hannibal and his army across 
the Alps, the battle of Thrasimene, and the defeat at the 
Caudine Forks. He was not a philosopher, a lawyer, or 
a politician : he could embrace with the eye and depict 
with the hand of an artist everything which was external 
and tangible ; but he could not penetrate the secret motives 
which actuate the human will, nor form a clear concep- 
tion of the fundamental legal and political principles 
which animated the institutions, and gave rise to the 
peculiarities, of Eoman constitutional history. 

With respect to the speeches which he attributes to his 
principal heroes, a greater degree of accuracy cannot be ex- 
pected, than is found in those of Thucydides. But they do 
not possess that verisimilitude which is so admirable in 
those of the Greek historian. As works of art they are fault- 

2d 2 



404 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

less, but Livy does not keep in view the principle adhered 
to by Thucydides, that they should be such as the speakers 
were likely to have delivered on the occasions in question. 
His great authority, Polybius, disapproves of imaginary 
speeches altogether j 1 but it must be remembered that, 
without some oratorical display, he would not have pleased 
the Eoman people. The speeches of Thucydides, although 
they bear the stamp of the writer's mind, are, to a certain 
extent, characteristic of the speaker, and seem inspired by 
the occasion. If a Spartan speaks, he is laconic ; if a 
general, he is soldier-like ; if a statesman or a demagogue, 
he is logical or argumentative, or appeals to the feelings 
and passions of the Athenian people. Consistency pro- 
duces variety. The speeches of Livy are pleasing and 
eloquent, 2 but they are always, so to speak, Livian ; 
they are frequently not such as Eomans would have 
spoken in times when eloquence was rude, though 
forcible. They partake of the rhetorical and declama- 
tory spirit, which was already beginning to creep over 
Eoman literature ; and often, from being unsuitable to 
time, place, and person, diminish, instead of heightening, 
the dramatic effect. 

Such are the principal defects which cause us to regret 
that, whilst Livy charms us with his romantic narratives 
and almost faultless style, he is too often a fallacious 
guide as an historian, and gives, not intentionally or dis- 
honestly, but from the character of his mind, and the 
object which he proposed to himself, a false colouring, or 
a vague and inaccurate outline to the events which he 
narrates. No one can avoid relishing the liveliness, fresh- 
ness, and " lactea ubertas," of Livy's fascinating style ; 
but its principal excellence is summed up in the expression 
of Quintiiian, " clarissimus candor" (brightness and luci- 
dity). 3 On the authority of Asinius Pollio, quoted by the 



Lib. ii. 56, 10. 2 Quint, x. i. 101. 3 Lib. x. i. 101. 



GRAMMARIANS. 405 

same writer, 1 a certain fault has been attributed to him, 
termed " Patavinity," i. e., some peculiar ideas not admis- 
sible in the purest Latin, which mark the place of his 
nativity. So little pains do people take in the investiga- 
tion of truth, and so ready are they to take upon trust 
what their predecessors have believed before them, that 
generation after generation have assumed that Livy's 
char, eloquent, and transparent style is disfigured by 
what Ave term provincialisms. 2 The penetrating mind of 
Niebnhr finds no ground for believing the story. If there 
is any truth in it, he supposes the criticism must have 
applied to his speaking, and not to his writing. 3 His 
style is always classical, even in the later decades : though 
prolix and tautologous, it is invariably marked by idio- 
matic purity and grammatical accuracy. 

Grammarians. 

The grammarians may be passed over with little more 
notice than the simple mention of their names, because, 
although they contributed to the stock of their country's 
literature, they added little or nothing to its literary 
reputation. The most conspicuous amongst them were — 
Atteius Philologus, a freedman and friend of Sallust ; 
Staberius Eros, who taught Brutus and Cassius; Q. 
Caecilius Epirota, the correspondent of Cicero ; C. Julius 
Hyginus, a Spaniard, the friend of Ovid, and curator of 
the Palatine library ; Yerrius Flaccus, the tutor to the 
grandsons of Augustus ; Q. Cornificius, who was augur at 
the same time with Cicero ; and P. Nigidius Figulus, an 
orator and philosopher as well as a grammarian. 



1 Lib. viii. i. 1, 5, 56. 

a Provincialism is not an accurate term ; for the worst Latin was spoken 
in Italy, whilst the only Latin spoken in the provinces or conquered de- 
pendencies was as polished as that of the capital. 

3 Lect. It. L. viii. 



406 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

M. YlTRUVIUS POLLIO. 

The distinguished name of M. Yitruvius Pollio claims a 
place in a catalogue of the Augustan writers. His subject, 
indeed, belongs to the department of the fine arts ; but 
his varied acquirements and extensive knowledge, as well 
as the manner in which, notwithstanding some faults, he 
treats Ms subject, shed some lustre upon Eoman litera- 
ture, and stamps him as one of the didactic writers of his 
country. 

Little information exists respecting this celebrated 
architect ; and this circumstance has led to his being con- 
founded with another professor of the same art, L. 
Yitruvius Cerdo. The name of the latter is thus in- 
scribed on an arch, which was his work, at Verona: 1 
" Q. Yitruvius L. L. Cerdo, Architectus." That Cerdo was 
not the author of the treatise extant under the name of 
Yitruvius, may be satisfactorily proved : — Firstly. The 
letters L. L. signify that he was Lucii Libertus (the 
freedman of Lucius), whereas M. Yitruvius Pollio was 
born free. Secondly. The arch on which the name ap- 
pears belongs to an age when the Romans had begun, in 
defiance of the precepts of Pollio, to neglect the principles 
of Greek arcMtecture. 2 

Both the place and date of Ms birth are unknown. 
According to some authorities he was born at Yerona ; 
according to others at Formiae ; 3 but he himself asserts 
that he received a good liberal education ; and the truth 
of tMs statement is confirmed by the knowledge which he 
displays of Greek and Eoman literature, and Ms acquamt- 
ance with works which treat, not only of arcMtecture, but 
also of polite learning and even philosophy 3 — the writings, 
for example, of Lucretius, Cicero, and Yarro. But the 
great object of Ms studies was, undoubtedly, professional, 
and to this he made literature a handmaid. 



Orell. Ins. Lat. 4145. 2 See Smith's Diet, of Biogr., sub v. 

3 Lib. vi. Prsef. and Vita Vitr. ed. Bipont. 



Y1TRUVIUS AN AUGUSTAN WRITER. 407 

Vitruvius served under Julius Caesar in Africa as a 
military engineer ; and was subsequently employed by one 
of the emperors, to whom Iris treatise is dedicated, in the di- 
rection and control of that department of the public service. 
By his favour, and the kindness of his sister, he was thus 
placed in a condition, if not of affluence, at least of com- 
petency. Who his imperial patron was has been disputed ; 
but the widely-extended conquests, the augmentation of 
the empire, the political institutions, and, moreover, the 
taste for architecture which Vitruvius attributes to him, 
renders it most probable that it was Augustus, the 
sovereign who found the city of bricks and left it of 
marble. It is clear that his work was written after the 
death of Julius Caesar, and not later than that of Titus, 
for to the former he prefixes the word Divus, whilst he 
does not mention the Coliseum ; and, although he speaks 
of Vesuvius, 1 he is evidently not aware of any eruptions 
having taken place except in ancient times. Notwith- 
standing the arguments adduced by W. Newton 2 to prove 
that he wrote in the reign of Titus, it is now universally 
admitted that Vitruvius was a writer of the Augustan 
age. The inferiority of his style to that of his contem- 
poraries, its occasional obscurity and want of method, the 
not unfrequent occurrence of inelegant, and even barba- 
rous expressions, notwithstanding his classical education, 
may be accounted for by what has already been stated 
respecting the professional object of all his studies. He 
himself claims indulgence on this score, 3 and states that 
he writes as an architect, and not as a literary man. So 
much of its difficulty as arises from conciseness he con- 
siders a matter for boasting rather than apology. 

In forming an estimate of the Latinity of an author 
like Vitruvius, it must not be forgotten that our taste is 
formed by authority and by a study of the best models. 



Lib. ii. 6. * Life and Trans, of Vitr. 1791. s See his Preface. 



408 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Novelty is exceptional, and therefore displeases. But 
technical subjects render not only the introduction of new 
terms necessary, but even, owing to the poverty of lan- 
guage, awkward periphrases and obscure phraseology. 
Nevertheless, upon the whole, the language of Yitruvius 
is vigorous, his descriptions bold, and seem the work of a 
true and correct hand, and a practised draughtsman. 

His work consists of ten books, in which he treats of 
the whole subject in a systematic and orderly manner. 

The following are its principal contents : — A general 
view of the science and of the education suitable to an 
architect ; the choice of sites ; the arrangement of the 
buildings and fortifications of a city; 1 an interesting 
essay on the earliest human dwellings, building materials, 2 
temples, altars, 3 forums, basilicse, treasuries, gaols, court- 
houses, baths, pabestrse, harbours, theatres, together 
with their acoustic principles, and the theory of musical 
sounds and harmonies. 4 Private dwellings, both in town 
and country ; 5 decoration ; 6 water, and the means of 
supply ; 7 chronometrical instruments ; 8 surveying 9 and 
engineering, both civil and military. 

His work is valuable as a conspectus of the principles 
of Greek architectural taste and beauty, of which he was 
a devoted admirer, and from which he would not will- 
ingly have permitted any deviation. But he was evi- 
dently deficient in the knowledge of the principles of 
Greek architectural construction. 10 His taste was pure, 
too pure, probably, for the Romans ; for, notwithstanding 
his theoretical excellence, we have no evidence of his being 
employed, practically, as an architect, except in the case 
of the Basilica 11 at Colonia Julia Fanestris, now Fano, 
near Ancona. 



1 Lib. i. 2 Lib, ii. 3 Lib. iii. and iv. 4 Lib. v. 

5 Lib. vi. 6 Lib. vii. 7 Lib. viii. 8 Lib. ix. 

9 Lib. x. 10 See Philolog. Museum, vol. i. p. 536. ll Lib. v. i. 13. 



( 409 ) 



BOOK III. 

ERA OF THE DECLINE. 



CHAPTER I. 

DECLINE OF ROMAN LITERATURE — IT BECAME DECLAMATORY — 
BIOGRAPHY OF PELEDRUS — GENUINENESS OF HIS FABLES — 
MORAL AND POLITICAL LESSONS INCULCATED IN THEM— SPE- 
CIMENS OF FABLES — FABLES SUGGESTED BY HISTORICAL 
EVENTS— SE J ANUS AND TIBERIUS —EPOCH UNFAVOURABLE TO 
LITERATURE — INGENUITY OF PH^DRUS — SUPERIORITY OF 
.ESOP — THE STYLE OF PH.EDRUS CLASSICAL. 

With the death of Augustus 1 commenced the decline of 
Eoman literature, and only three illustrious names, 
Phaeclrus, Persius, and Lucan, rescue the first years of 
tliis period from the charge of a corrupt and vitiated 
taste. After a while, indeed, political circumstances 
again became more favourable — the dangers which para- 
lysed genius and talent, and prevented their free exercise 
under Tiberius and his tyrannical successors, diminished, 
and a more liberal system of administration ensued 
under Vespasian and Titus. Juvenal and Tacitus then 
stood forth as the representatives of the old Eoman 
independence ; vigour of thought communicated itself to 
the langrua^e : a taste for the sublime and beautiful to a 
certain extent revived, although it did not attain to the 
perfection which shed a lustre over the Augustan age. 

1 A. D. 14. 



410 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The characteristic of the first literature of this epoch 
was declamation and rhetoric. As liberty declined, true 
natural eloquence gradually decayed. "When it is no 
longer necessary or even possible to persuade or convince 
the people, that eloquence which calms the passions, wins 
the affections, or appeals to common sense and the 
reasoning powers, has no opportunity for exercise. Its 
object is a new one — namely, to please and attract an 
audience, who listen in a mere critical spirit : the weapons 
which it makes use of are novelty and ingenuity ; novelty 
soon becomes strangeness, and strangeness exaggeration ; 
whilst ingenuity implies unnatural study and a display of 
pedantic erudition — the aiming at startling and striking 
effects — and at length ends in affectation. 

If this was the prevailing false taste under the imme- 
diate successors of Augustus, it is not surprising that it 
affected poetry as well as prose ; and that the principal 
talent of the poet lay in florid and diffuse descriptions, 
whilst his chief fault was a style overladen with ornament. 
The tragedies ascribed to Seneca are theatrical declama- 
tions; the Satires of Persius are pliilosophical decla- 
mations ; whilst the poems of Lucan and Silius Italicus, 
though epic in form, are nothing more than descriptive 
poems, and their style is rather rhetorical than poetical. 

PHtEDRUS. 

Fable had been long known and popular amongst the 
Romans before the time of Phsedrus. Livy could not 
have attributed the well-known one to Menenius Agrippa, 
unless it had been a familiar tradition of long standing. 
Fables amused the guests of Horace, and furnished sub- 
jects to those of Ovid. In this, as in other fields of 
literature, Pome was an imitator of Greece ; but never- 
theless the Poman fabulist struck out a new line for 
himself, and in his hands fable became, not only a moral 
instructor, but a severe political satirist. Phsedrus, the 



BIOGRAPHY OF PH/EDRUS. 411 

originator and only author of Eoman fable, flourished on 
the common confines of the golden and the silver age. 
His mode of thought, as well as the events which sug- 
gested both his original illustrations and his adaptations 
of the JEsopean stories, belong to that epoch of transition. 
His works are, as it were, isolated: he has no contem- 
poraries. Although he was born in the reign of Augustus, 
he wrote when the Augustan age had passed away. 
Nevertheless Iris solitary voice was lifted up when those 
of the poet, the historian, and the philosopher were 
silenced. 

Phaedrus, like Horace, is his own biographer ; and the 
only knowledge which we have respecting his life is fur- 
nished by his Fables. In the prologue to the third book 
he informs us that he was a native of Thrace : "I," he 
says, " to whom my mother gave birth on the Pierian 
hill— 

Ego quem Pierio mater enixa est jugo." 

And, again, he exclaims, "Why should I, who am nearer 
to lettered Greece, desert for slothful indolence the honour 
of my fatherland? when Thrace can reckon up her 
poets, and Apollo is the parent of Linus, the muse of 
Orpheus, who by his song endowed rocks with motion, 
tamed the wild beasts, and stopped the rapid Hebrus 
with welcome delay : — " 

Ego literatae qui sum propior Graecite, 
Cur somno inerti deseram patrke decus ? 
Thre'issa cum gens numeret auctores suos, 
Linoque Apollo sit parens, Musa Orpheo 
Qui saxa cantu movit, et domuit feras, 
Hebrique tenuit impetus dulci mora. 

From the title, " Augusti libertus," prefixed to his fables, 
it is clear that he adds one more distinguished name to 
that list of freeclnien, who were celebrated in the annals 
of literature. Although, in the preface to his work, he 
modestly terms himself only a translator of iEsop : — 



412 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

iEsopus auctor quam materiam repperit 
Hanc ego polivi versibus senariis. l 

Still, for many of his fables, he deserves the credit of 
originality. Probably he enlarged and extended his 
original plan ; for he afterwards speaks of simply adopting 
the style and not the matter of the iEsopean fable. 2 

He does not appear to have gained much fame or popu- 
larity ; for he is only twice mentioned by ancient autho- 
rities, namely, by Martial 3 and Seneca. 4 The latter, 
writing to Polybius, a favourite freedman of Claudius, 
encourages him to enter upon the field which Phsedrus 
already occupied, asserting that fables in the style of 
iEsop constituted a work hitherto unattempted by Eoman 
genius {intentatum Romanis ingeniis opus). Either, 
therefore, the fables of Phsedrus were little known and 
appreciated, or Seneca purposely concealed from the 
Emperor's favourite the fact of their existence, in order 
to flatter him with the hopes of his thus becoming the 
first Eoman writer in his style. The persecution to 
which literary men were subject under the worst Em- 
perors, of which Phsedrus hints obscurely that he was a 
victim 5 — the perils to which he would have been exposed 
by strictures upon persons in power, which, concealed 
under the veil of fiction, appear now dark and enigmatical, 
but which might have spoken plainly to the consciences 
of the actors themselves — probably rendered it a wise 
precaution to conceal his works during his lifetime; 
hence they would be little known, except to a chosen 
few, and the few ccpies made of them would account for 
the rarity of the extant manuscripts. 

Owing to the deficiency of ancient testimony, the 
genuineness of the Fables has been disputed; but the 
purity of style, and the natural allusions to contemporary 



1 Prol. lib. i. 2 Prol. lib. iii. 3 Lib. iii. 20. 

4 Cons, ad Polybium 27. 5 Prol. lib. iii. 



COLLECTION OF FABLES BY PEROTTO. 418 

events, vendor it almost certain that they belong to the 
age in which they were supposed to have been written. 
No one but a contemporary could have written the fable 
commencing — 

Narrabo memoria quod factum est mca. 1 

The prologue to the third book evidently speaks of the 
author's own calamities ; and the way in which the name 
of Sejanus is connected with the event, hints, although 
obscurely, that that prime minister of tyranny was the 
author of his sufferings. It is scarcely probable that he 
would have ventured to attack Sejanus during his life- 
time. It may, therefore, be assumed that Phsedrus lived 
beyond the eighteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, in 
which year Sejanus died. 

The original manuscript followed in the early editions 
of Phsedrus was discovered in the tenth century : it con- 
tained ninety-seven fables, divided into five books. But 
N. Perotto, an archbishop of Manfredonia, in the fifteenth 
century, published a miscellaneous collection of Latin 
fables, and amongst them were thirty -two new fables 
attributed to Phaedrus, which were not found in the 
older editions. These were at first supposed to have 
been written by Perotto himself; but the manifest infe- 
riority of some poems known to be the work of the 
archbishop, and the Augustan purity of style which 
marks the newly-discovered fables, leave little doubt of 
their genuineness. Consequently, they were published 
by Angelo Mai as supplementary to those which had 
already appeared. 

The circumstances of the times in which he lived 
suggested the moral and prudential lessons which his 
fables inculcated. The bane of Eome, under the empire, 
was the public informer {delator), as the sycophant had 
been the pest of Athens. Life and conduct, private as 



1 Lib. iii. 40. 



414 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

well as public, were exposed to a complete system of 
espionage: no one was safe from this formidable inquisition; 
a man's familiar associate might be in secret his bitterest 
enemy. But the principal victims were the rich : they 
were marked out for destruction, in order that the con-' 
fiscation of their property might glut the avarice of the 
Emperor and the informers. For this reason, Phsedrus 
himself professes always to have seen the peril of acquiring 
wealth — 

Periculosum semper reputavi lucrum. 

And we cannot be surprised that the danger of riches, and 
the comparative safety of obscurity and poverty, should 
sometimes form the moral of his fables. 

That of the Mules and the Thieves, which is entirely 
his own, teaches this lesson : — 

Muli gravati sarcinis ibant duo ; 
Unus ferebat fiscos cum pecunia, 
Alter tumentes multo saccos hordeo. 
Ille, onere dives, celsa cervice eminet, 
Clarumque collo jactat tintinnabulum ; 
Comes quieto sequitur et placido gradu. 
Subito latrones ex insidiis advolant, 
Interque csedem ferro mulum sauciant, 
Diripiunt nummos, negligunt vile bordeum. 
Spoliatus igitur cum casus fleret suos, 
Equidem, inquit alter, me contemptum gaudeo, 
Nam nihil amisi nee sum l<esus vulnere. 
Hoc argumento tuta est bominum tenuitas ; 
Magnae periclo sunt opes obnoxiee. 1 

" Two mules, laden with heavy burdens, were journeying 
together ■ one carried bags of money ; the other, sacks filled 
with barley. The former, proud of his rich load, carried 
his head high, and made the bell on his neck sound 
merrily ; his companion followed with quiet and gentle 
paces. On a sudden, some thieves rush from an ambus- 
cade, wound the treasure-mule, strip him of his money 
bags, but leave untouched the worthless barley. When, 

1 Lib. ii. 7. 



LESSONS TAUGHT BY FABLES. 415 

therefore, the sufferer bewailed his sad case — 'For my 
part/ replied his companion, ' I rejoice that I was treated 
with contempt ; for I have no wounds, and have lost no- 
thing.' The subject of this fable proves that poverty 
is sate, whilst great wealth is exposed to peril." 

The fable of the Man and the Ass teaches a salutary 
lesson to another class of wealthy men : namely, those 
favourites of the emperor and his creatures, who owed 
their wealth to plunder and confiscation. Every day's 
experience proved that those who battened on the spoils 
of the oppressed one day became themselves the vicii^is 
of the same tyrannical system the next. Like that of 
the prime minister, Sejanus lrimself, the sun of their 
prosperity was destined to set, and their ill-gotten spoil 
to enrich others as unworthy as themselves. Those 
fortunes were indeed built upon a rotten foundation, 
which the same system had power to raise up and to 
overthrow : — 

Qiiidam immolasset verrem quum sancto Herculi, 
Cui pro salute votum debebat sua, 
Asello jussit reliquias poni hordei. 
Quas aspernatus ille sic locutus est : 
Tuum libenter prorsus appeterem cibum 
Nisi, qui nutritus illo est, jugulatus foret. 
* * * * 

Majorem turbam punitorum reperies ; 
Paucis temeritas est bono, raultis malo. 1 

" A man, who had sacrificed a boar to Hercules, which 
he had vowed as a thank-offering for his recovery from 
sickness, ordered the remains of the barley to be given to 
his ass. The ass rejected it with scorn, and said, I would 
gladly eat of the food you give me, had not he who was 
fattened on it had his throat cut. 

" You will find that the majority of those who grow rich 
by violence and rapine are punished : audacity succeeds 
with few, but ruins many." 

1 Lib. v. 4. 



41 G ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

The continued succession of tyrannical emperors must 
have taught their oppressed subjects that they had no- 
thing to hope for from a change of those who wore the 
purple. This truth is embodied in the fable of the old 
Peasant and his Ass : — 

In principatu commutando civium 
Nil, prseter domini nomen, mutant pauperes. 
Id esse verum parva hsec fabula indicat. 
Asellum in prato timidus pascebat senex. 
Is, hostium clamore subito territus, 
Suadebat asino fugere, ne possent capi. 
At ille lentus ; quseso, num binas mihi 
Clitellas impositurum victorem putas 1 
Senex negavit. Ergo quid refert mea - 
Cui serviam, clitellas dum portem meas 1 ? 1 

"In a change of princes the poor change nothing but 
the name of their master. The truth of this is shown by 
the following little fable. A timid old man was feeding 
his ass in a meadow. Alarmed by the shouts of an ad- 
vancing enemy he urged the ass to fly for fear they should 
be taken prisoners. But the ass loitered, and said, ' Pray 
do you think that the conqueror will put two pack-saddles 
on my back ?' ' No,' replied the old man. ' What, 
then, does it matter to me in whose service I am, so long 
as I have to carry my load ?' " 

The well-known fable of the Wolf and the Lamb (i. 1) 
illustrates the unscrupulousness of the informers ; and 
that of the Wolf and the House-dog (iii. 7) teaches how 
preferable is liberty, even under the greatest privations, 
to luxury and comfort purchased by submission to the 
caprices of a master. 

Of such a kind were the moral and political lessons 
which Phiedrus enforced in the attractive garb of fables. 
They were of a general character, suggested by the evils 
of the times in which he lived. 

Another class were suggested by historical events : they 



Lib. i. 15. 



THE PROGS DEMANDING A KING. 417 

were nevertheless severe satirical strictures on individuals. 
Two may be pointed out as examples wliicli are evidently 
directed against Tiberius and Sejanus. These are — The 
Frogs demanding a King (i. 2) ; and the Frogs and the 
Sun (i. 6). Neither of the fables are original, they are 
apposite applications of two by iEsop. 

The Romans, 1 like the frogs in the first of these fables, 
had exchanged their liberty for the slavery of the 
empire. In Tiberius, now an imbecile dotard, wholly 
given up to sensual indulgence in his retreat at Caprese, 
they had a perfect King Log. He was utterly careless 
of the sufferings of his subjects and the administration 
of his kingdom. 

To his odious minister, Sejanus, he entrusted the toils 
of government, to which, his own indolence indisposed 
him. All tyranny and cruelty were ascribed to the 
ministers ; whilst the effeminate debauchery of the Em- 
peror rendered him, even in that demoralized age, an 
object of contempt and insult rather than of abhorrence 
and fear. L. Sejanus, a kinsman of iElius, 2 employed 
bald-headed persons, and children with then" heads shaved, 
in the procession of the Floral games, in order to hold up 
to scorn and derision the bald-headed Emperor, and he 
dared not take notice of the insult. The infamous Ful- 
cinius Trio in his last will declared that Tiberius had 
become childish in his old age, and that his continued 
retirement was nothing else but exile. 3 Pacuvianus was 
the author of pasquinades against the Emperor. In the 
same way Phsedrus describes the frogs as treating " King 
Log " with scorn, and as defiling him in the most offen- 
sive manner. 

But after the death of Sejanus a change took place in the 
Emperor's conduct, though not in his character. He left 



1 See Nisard, Etudes but les Poe'tes Latins, torn. i. 9. 

2 Dion. Cass, lviii. 19. 3 Tac. Ann. vi. 38. 

• 2 E 



418 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Caprese for a time, and took up his abode in the Vatican, 
close to the very walls of Eome. He now gave vent to 
his savage disposition, and displayed the temper of the 
water snake in the fable. His natural cruelty was equalled 
by his activity. " His sharp tooth seized his unresisting 
victims one after the other : in vain they fly from death ; 
fear prevents them from uttering a word in defence or 
expostulation." No longer a vast expanse of sea and land 
intervened between the tyrant and his victims. There 
was nothing to delay the pompous and verbose missives 
of his bloody purposes : his rescripts could reach the con- 
suls the same day, or at least after the interval of a night : 
he could behold, as it were, with his own eyes the reeking 
hands of the executioners, and the waves of blood which 
deluged every dwelling. 1 Vengeance not only fell on 
the guilty Sejanus and his unoffending family, the vilest 
and the noblest blood of Eome alike flowed at the 
tyrant's command. The fable of the Frogs and the Sun 
was a covert attack upon the ambitious designs of Sejanus. 
It is sufficiently short to be quoted : — 

Uxorem quandam Sol quum vellet ducere, 
Clamorem Ranse sustulere ad sidera. 
Convicio permotus, quaerit Jupiter 
Causam querelas. Quaedam turn stagiii incola, 
Nunc, inquit, omnes unus exurit lacus 
Cogitque miseras arida sede emori ; 
Quidnam futurum est, si crearit liberos 1 2 

" Once upon a time the Sun determined to marry : and 
the frogs raised a cry of alarm to heaven. Jupiter, moved 
by their complaints, asked the cause of them. One of the 
denizens of the pond answered : — Now the Sun by him- 
self dries up all the lakes, and causes us to die a miserable 



1 Hsec Tiberius non mari, ut olim, divisus, neque per longinquos nuntios 
accipiebat, sed urbem juxta ; eodem ut die, vel noctis interjectu, literis 
consilium rescriberet ; quasi aspiciens undantem per domos sanguinem, 
aut manus carnificum. — Tac. Ann. vi. 39 

2 Lib. i. 6. 



T11K FROGS AM) THE SUN. 419 

death in our parched-up dwellings. What then will be- 
come of us if lie has children ?" 

Now let us examine the application. The fawning 
yet ambitious Sejanus had always aspired to ally himself 
with the imperial family. The first attempt which he 
made to accomplish his design was procuring the be- 
trothal of his daughter to Drusus, the son of Claudius, 
afterwards emperor. This prince died young, and conse- 
quently the marriage never took place j 1 but this first 
opened the eyes of the Eomans to the audacious projects 
of the favourite. Later in his career, 2 he, by a similar 
step, endeavoured to pave his way to trie imperial purple. 
He seduced Livilla, the sister of the amiable Grermanicus, 
poisoned her husband, divorced his own wife, and asked the 
sanction of Tiberius to his marriage with the widow of 
the murdered man. The emperor, with his usual finesse 
and dissimulation, refused. The demand awoke the sus- 
picions of the court, and was a commencement of that 
coolness between Sejanus and his patron which eventually 
ended in the fall of the latter. The influence of Sejanus 
alone was sufficiently baneful ; what would it be if 
multiplied by a race of princes descended from liim? 
The mere probability of such an event naturally filled 
Eome with alarm and consternation ; and this Phsedrus 
endeavoured to encourage by a fable, which, if it had not 
some such object as this, would scarcely be intelligible. 

The quotations which have been given from the fables 
of Phaedrus are sufficient, as examples of Iris ingenuity in 
imitation and adaptation, as well as of his original genius, 
whenever he trusts to his powers of invention. Some of 
his pieces, although, like the rest, they are entitled fables, 
are, in fact, narratives of real events, and show that he 
possessed a charming talent for telling anecdotes, besides 
skill as a fabulist in the proper sense of the term. His 



Suet. Vit. Claud. 27. 2 a. d. 23. 

2 e 2 



420 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

style has great merits : it combines the simple neatness 
and graceful elegance of the golden age with the vigour 
and terseness of the silver one. Phsedrus has the facility 
of Ovid, and the brevity of Tacitus. Thus standing in 
the epoch between two literary periods, he, as far as the 
humble nature of his walk admits, unites the excellencies 
of both. Between the age of Horace and Juvenal, Cicero 
and Tacitus, there was a gap, and a long one, not less 
than half a century : it was a period in which Eoman 
genius was slumbering. Phsedrus proves that that sleep 
was not the sleep of death. Tacitus has partially ac- 
counted for this cold and dark interval. He tells us 1 — 
" that although the affairs of the ancient Eoman re- 
public, whether in prosperity or in adversity, were 
related by illustrious writers — and even the times of 
Augustus were not deficient in historians of talent and 
genius — nevertheless the gradual growth of a spirit of 
adulation deterred all who were qualified for the task 
from attempting it. Fear, during the life-time of Tibe- 
rius, Caius, Claudius, and Nero, and hatred, still fresh 
after their deaths, rendered all accounts of their reigns 
false." 

It was thus, according to him, fear and hatred, and 
a spirit of flattery, that silenced the voice of history. 
Doubtless what he says of history applies with equal 
force to poetry and oratory likewise. The same cause 
which crushed political liberty rendered the truthfulness 
of the historian fraught with danger, and all poetry, 
except it spoke the language of adulation, treason; a 
crime which was no longer one against the majesty of 
the people, but was transferred to the person of the 
emperor. The very term irapp^ala (boldness of speech) 
was a word, the utterance of which was as perilous as 
to speak of liberty. 2 The danger had scarcely passed 



Tac. Ann. I. i. 8 Vide Suet. Vit. Calig. 27. 



(USES UNFAVOURABLE TO LITERATURE. 421 

away when Juvenal, notwithstanding his fearless spirit, 

wrote : — 

Unde ilia priorum 
Scribendi quodcunque animo flagrante liberet, 
Simplicitas, cujus uon audeo dicere lionien. 

Juv. i. 153. 

Where the plain times, the simple, when our sires 

Enjoyed a freedom which I dare not name, 

And gave the public sin to public shame, 

Heedless who smiled or frowned. Qifford. 

But there was a negative as well as a positive cause, the 
withdrawal of patronage. Literature, in order to flourish, 
requires the genial sunshine of human sympathy : it needs 
either the patronage of the great or the favour of the 
people. In Greece it enjoyed the latter in the highest 
possible degree ; in Eome, from the time of the Scipios 
to that of Augustus, it was fostered by the former. Im- 
mediately after his death patronage was withdrawn, and 
there was not public support to supply its place. Tiberius 
was first a soldier ; then a dark and reserved politician ; 
lastly, a bloodthirsty and superstitious sensualist. The 
enjoyments of Caius Caligula were the extravagancies of 
a madman : although he was responsible for his moral 
insanity, because he had, by vicious indulgence, been the 
destroyer of his moral principle ; and not only did he not 
encourage literature, but he even hated Homer and Virgil. 
Lastly, the stupid and dozing Claudius wrote books 1 as 
stupid as himself, and was at once the butt and tool of 
his courtiers. It was not, therefore, until the reign of 
Nero that literature revived ; for, though the bloodiest of 
tyrants, he had an ambition to excel in refinement, and 
had a taste for art and poetry. 

In the construction of his fables, Phsedrus displays 
observation and ingenuity. Nothing escapes his watchful 
eye which can be turned to account in his little poems. A 



Suet. Claud. 42. 



422 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

rude sketch in charcoal on the wall of a low tavern 1 sug- 
gests to him the idea of the Battle between the Eats and 
the Weasels. His animals are grouped, and put in atti- 
tudes, just as a painter would arrange them. His accu- 
rate eye has noted and registered the habits of the brute 
creation, and has adapted them to the delivery of noble and 
wise sentiments with the utmost ingenuity. But there his 
genius stops. He is deficient in imagination. He makes 
his animals the vehicles of his wisdom ; but he does not 
throw himself into them, or identify himself with them. 
The true poet is lost in his characters : carried away by 
the enthusiasm of an inspired imagination, his spirit is 
transferred into his heroes ; — you forget his existence. 
The characters of Phsedrus look and act like animals, but 
talk like human beings : the moralist and the philosopher 
can always be detected speaking under their mask and 
in their disguise. 

In this consists the great superiority of JEsop to his 
Boman imitator. His brutes are a superior race, but 
they are still brutes. The reader could almost fancy 
that the fabulist had lived amongst them as one of them- 
selves — had adopted their modes of life, and had conversed 
with them in their own language. In Phaedrus we 
have human sentiments translated into the language of 
beasts — in iEsop we have beasts giving utterance to such 
sentiments as would be naturally theirs, if they were 
placed in the position of men. Skilful adaptation and 
happy delineation are the triumphs of ingenuity and 
observation : the creative power is that of the imagi- 
nation. 

The style of Phsedrus, notwithstanding a few pro- 
vincialisms, 2 is pure and classical. He does not often 
indulge in the use of metaphors, but the few which are 
met with are striking and appropriate. He is not 



Lib. iv. 6. 2 See lib. i. 2, 9 ; ii. 7, 8 ; iii. 6, 9. 



STYLE OF PIUSDRUS. 423 

entirely free from some of that far-fetched affectation 
which characterises the decline of Koman literature. But 
his fault is exaggerated conciseness, and the concentra- 
tion of many ideas within a "brief space, rather than the 
rhetorical ornament, which now "began to he admired 
and popular. His endeavour after brevity led him to 
use abstract substantives far more profusely than is con- 
sistent with the practice of the best classical writers. 
These faults, however, do not interfere with that clear- 
ness and simplicity, which, quite as much as the subjects, 
have rendered the fables of Phsedrus a popular book for 
the young student, and please even those who have the 
opportunity of comparing his iambics with the liveliness 
of Gay, the politeness of Plorian, the philosophy of 
Lessing, the sweetness of Cowper, and the unequalled 
versatility of La Fontaine. 



424 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER II. 

DRAMATIC LITERATURE IN THE AUGUSTAN AGE — REVIVAL 
UNDER NERO— DEFECTS OF THE TRAGEDIES ATTRIBUTED TO 
SENECA — INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF THEIR AUTHORSHIP — 
SENECA THE PHILOSOPHER A STOIC — INCONSISTENT AND UN- 
STABLE — THE SENTIMENTS OF HIS PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS 
FOUND IN HIS TRAGEDIES — PARALLEL PASSAGES COMPARED 
— FRENCH SCHOOL OF TRAGIC POETS. 

Of Roman tragedy in its earliest period, so far as the 
fragments of it which remain allow a judgment to be 
formed, an account has already been given ; and if cir- 
cumstances forbade it to flourish then, still less can it be 
expected that the boldness and independence of Greek 
tragedy would be found under the empire. Never- 
theless, there were not wanting some imitators of Greece 
in this noblest branch of Greek poetry, however un- 
suitable it was to the genius of the Roman people, and 
unlikely to be appreciated by them. 

But their productions were rather literary than dra- 
matic; they- were intended to be read, not acted. They 
were poems composed in a dramatic form, because Athens 
had set the example of that form to her devoted imitators. 
Although, therefore, they contain noble philosophical 
sentiments, lively descriptions, vigorous conceptions and 
delineations of character, and passages full of tenderness 
and pathos, they are deficient in dramatic effect, and 
positively offend against those laws of good taste, which, 
not arbitrarily assumed, but founded on the principles of 
the human mind, regulated the Athenian stage. 



REAPPEARANCE OF THE DRAMA. 425 

We have seen that, in the Angnstan age, a few writers 
attained some excellence in tragedy, at least in the opi- 
nion of ancient critics. Besides Ovid and Varins, whose 
tragedies have been already mentioned, Asinins Pollio 
acquired a high reputation as a tragic poet, and Virgil 1 
declares that he is the only one worthy of being com- 
pared with Sophocles. 

Sola Sophoeleo tua carmina digna cothurno. 

On the revival of letters under that professor of a love of 
poetry, 2 the tyrant Nero, dramatic literature reappeared, 
and perfect specimens are extant in the ten tragedies 
attributed to Seneca. Yarious and opposite opinions 
have been entertained respecting their merits ; but there 
can be no doubt that the genius of the author never can 
grasp in their wholeness the characters which he attempts 
to copy ; they are distorted images of the Greek 
originals ; the awful and shadowy grandeur of the god- 
like heroes of JEschylus stand forth in corporeal vastness, 
and appear childish and unnatural, like the giants of a 
story-book. The marvels of Greek tragedy and Greek 
mythology, though merely the unreal conceptions of the 
imagination, do not appear exaggerated, because the 
connexion between the theory and the result, the causes 
and the effects, is so skilfully maintained : but in these 
Eoman tragedies the legends of Greece appear extrava- 
gant and absurd ; they are as unreal, and therefore seem 
as affected, as the classical garb in which English poetry 
was arrayed in the age of Anne. The Greeks believed 
in the gods and heroes whose agency and exploits con- 
stituted the machinery of tragedy — the Eomans did 
not ; and thus we cannot sympathize with them, because 
we see that they are insincere. The style, moreover, 
of the tragedies, which bear the name of Seneca, is 
spoiled by that inflated language and redundancy of 

1 Eel. viii. 10. z Tac. Ann. xiv. 52. 



426 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ornament, the constant effect of which is, as Aristotle 
observes, frigidity. They bear the visible marks of an 
age in which genius had given place to an artificial 
and scholastic rhetoric; and the author seems to have 
been striving not for tragic pathos so much as bril- 
liant declamation. In the female characters especially, 
the Eoman tragic poet fails ; for, although he can un- 
derstand heroism, he is unable to accomplish that most 
difficult of all tasks, the combining it with feminine 
delicacy. Perhaps the best and noblest of his country- 
women did not furnish him with such ideals. The 
Eoman matron was the counterpart of her warlike lord. 
The Lucretias, Porcias, Cornelias, Arrias, though de- 
voted and affectionate, were of sterner mould than An- 
tigone and Deianira. 

The tragedies which bear the name of Seneca have 
been attributed to L. Annseus Seneca, the philosopher, 
as early as the time of Quintilian, 1 who quotes as Seneca's 
a verse from the Medea. The improbability of this being 
the case is also diminished by the fact that both Tacitus 2 
and Pliny the Younger 3 speak of him as a poet. Never- 
theless, their authorship has been considered a very 
doubtful question. A passage in an epigram of Martial, 
in which he speaks of Cordova as the birthplace of two 
Senecas and one Lucan — 

Duosque Senecas unicumque Lucanum 
Facunda loquitur Corduba— 4 

has been interpreted as implying that Seneca the 
philosopher was a different person from Seneca the 
tragedian. There can, however, be scarcely any doubt 
that he was speaking of M. Annseus Seneca the rhe- 
torician, and his son Lucius the philosopher. Sidonius 
Apollinaris, 5 the son-in-law of the Emperor Flavius 



1 Inst. Or. ix. 2, 9. 2 Annal. xiv. 3 Epist. v. 

4 Lib. i. Ep. 6. 5 Bernhardy, Grund. p. 373. 



INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF AUTHORSHIP. 427 

Avitus, and Bishop of Clermont, 1 in the last years of 

the Roman empire, unhesitatingly draws a distinction 

between them. He enumerates three members of the 

Cordovan family : — 

Quorum unus colit hispidum Platonem, 

Incassumque suum monet Neronem, 

Orchestram quatit alter Euripidis 

Pictum ftecibus ^Eschylum sequutus, 

Aut plaustris solitum sonare Thespim 

Pugnam tertius ille Gallicanam 

Dixit Csesaris. Carm. ix. 231. 

But, notwithstanding the celebrity which Sidonius 
enjoyed as a poet at the imperial court, his opinion is 
of no authority when weighed against the internal 
evidence derived from the tragedies themselves. This 
renders it almost morally certain, that they are the work 
of no other writer than Seneca the philosopher. 

Although the Romans, as being imitators of the 
Greeks, and not original thinkers, were eclectics in 
philosophy, their favourite doctrines were those of the 
Stoics. They suited the rigid sternness of their character : 
they embodied that spirit of self-devotion and self-denial 
with which the Roman patriot, in the old times of simple 
republican virtue, threw himself into his public duties ; 
and Seneca, with all his faults, was a real Roman ; with 
all his finesse and artful policy, he retained, in the midst 
of a debased age and a profligate court, a large portion of 
the old Roman character. In life and in death his was 
a true specimen of the Stoic creed. 

Still he was by no means a consistent man : his theory 
was perfect, but his practice often fell short of it. The 
lessons of morality contained in his philosophical works 
are excellent, and persuasively enforced, and wear an 
appearance of honesty and sincerity; but, nevertheless, 
in his philosophy, as well as in his life, we can discover 

1 a. d. 472. 



428 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

that his moral principles were unstable and wavering. 
These two features can be traced in his tragedies : they 
abound in philosophical dogmas and moral sentiments, 
and they display the same Stoicism mingled with occa- 
sional habits of inconsistency. Suicide is painted in the 
most attractive colours : death is met not only with 
courage, but with the same indifference with which 
Seneca himself, together with other victims of imperial 
tyranny, met it in his own. day. It is not welcomed, 
as in the Greek tragedians, as a relief from the burden of 
earthly sorrows ; but there is a manifest departure from 
the Greek model : the natural beauty of that model is 
violated, and the features of the original character sacri- 
ficed to Stoical coldness and want of feeling. 

But not only are these tragedies filled with philoso- 
phical reflections ; even the sentiments enunciated in the 
acknowledged works of Seneca, in his Essays and Epistles, 
are transferred to them, and the peculiar turns of expres- 
sion used by the philosopher are repeated by the poet. 
A brilliant French author 1 has ingeniously brought to- 
gether and compared parallel passages, which illustrate 
this similarity of sentiment and style. A few of these 
are sufficient as examples. Two in the " Phcenissse," in 
which (Edipus insists on " the liberty of dying," embody 
the same doctrine as two others, one in the epistles to 
Lucilius, the other in the treatise on Providence. 

He (says (Edipus) who compels one who is unwilling to die does 
the same as he who hinders one who is eager for death ; nay, I con- 
sider the latter treats me the worse of the two. I had rather that 
death were forced upon me than that the privilege of dying should be 
torn from me. 

Qui cogit mori 
Nolentem, in aequo est, quique properantem impedit. 
Nee tamen in eequo est ; alteram gravius reor, 
Malo imperari quam eripi mortem mihi. Phcenis. 98. 



Nisard, Etudes, torn. i. 88, et seq,, 



PASSAGES COMPARED. 429 

And again the same favourite sentiment appears : — 

1 cannot be prevented from dying ; of what availeth all that care of 
thine 1 Death is everywhere. Most wisely has God provided for this. 
There is no one who cannot rob a man of life, but no one can rob him 
of death ; to this a thousand roads are open. 

Morte prohiberi haud queo. 
Quiil ista tandem cura proficit tua 1 
Ubique mors est. Optime hoc cavit Deus. 
Eripere vitam nemo non homini potest ; 
At nemo mortem ; mille ad hanc aditus patent. 

Phcenis. 146. 

With these are compared the following sentences of 
the philosopher, in which not only the doctrines, but also 
the language in which they are expressed, are so strikingly 
parallel as scarcely to admit of a doubt that the authors 
are identical : — 

To live under compulsion is an evil ; but there is no compulsion to 
live under compulsion. Many roads to liberty lie open on all sides, 
short and easy. Let us thank God that no one can be retained in 
hfe. 

And again, Divine Providence is represented as de- 
claring to mankind : — 

Before all things I have provided that no one should detain you 
against your will — an exit is open to you. 

Malum est in necessitate vivere, sed in necessitate vivere necessitas 
nulla est. Patent undique ad libertatem vice multce, breves, faciles. 
Agamus Deo gratias, quod nemo in vita teneri potest. — Ep. xii. 

Ante omnia cavi, ne quis vos teneret invitos, patet exitus. 

Be Provident, vi. 

How exactly in accordance with these sentiments, 
whether expressed in poetry or prose, is the closing scene 
of Seneca's life; the almost business-like way in which 
he entered upon the road which was appointed to lead 
him from the dominion of necessity to the enjoyment of 
liberty — the imperturbable coolness with which he could 
contemplate the death of his wife, whom he loved with 
the greatest affection I 1 How calculated, moreover, were 

1 Tac. Ann. xv. 63. 



430 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

they to engage the sympathies of his contemporaries ! It 
was an age in which, amidst its various corruptions, the 
only virtue which survived was the knowing how to meet 
death with a courageous spirit, in which many of the best 
and the noblest willingly died by their own hands at the 
imperial mandate, in order to save their name from infamy, 
and the inheritance of their children from confiscation. 

Again, an awful belief in destiny, and the hopeless, yet 
patient, struggle of a great and good man against this 
aH-ruling power, is the mainspring of Greek tragedy. 
This is not transferred into the imitations of the Eomans. 
Its place is supplied by the stern fatalism of the Stoics. 
The principle of destiny entertained by the Greek poets 
is a mythological, even a religious one : it is the irresistible 
will of God. God is at the commencement of the chain 
of causes and effects, by which the event is brought about 
which God has ordained ; his inspired prophets have power 
to foretell, and mortals cannot resist or avoid. It is 
rather predestination than destiny. The doctrine implies 
an intelligent agent, not a mere abstract principle. 

The fatalism of the Stoics, on the other hand, is the 
doctrine of practical necessity. It ignores the almighty 
power of the Supreme Being, although it does not deny 
his existence. It strips him of his attributes as the moral 
Governor of the universe. These doctrines are found 
both in the philosopher and the tragic poet. Translate 
the subjoined prose passage into the conventional language 
of poetry, adopt as a mere matter of embellishment the 
fables of Greek mythology, personify the Stoical principle 
of necessity by the Greek Fates, and it becomes the Chorus 
in the Latin tragedy of (Edipus. Both these passages 
are quoted by Msard : — 

Nihil cogor nihil potior invitus ; nee servio Deo, sed assentior ; eo 
quidem magis, quod scio omnia certa et in aeternum dicta lege decur- 
rere. Fata nos ducunt, et quantum cuique restat, prima nascent ium 
hora disposuit. Causa pendet ex causa ; privata ac publica longus ordo 
rerum traliit. Ideo fortiter omne ferendum est ; quia non, ut puta- 



PASSAGES COMPARED. 431 

inns, incidunt cuncta, sed veniunt. Olim constitutum est quid 
gaudeas, quid fleas ; et quamvis magna videatur varietate singulorum 
vita distingui, summa iu unum venit ; accepimus peritura perituri. 

Be Provid. v. 
I am neither compelled to do or to suffer anything against my will. 
I am not a slave to God, but I bow to his will. The more so because 
I know that all things are fixed and proceed according to an everlast- 
ing law. Destiny is our guide, and the hour of our birth has disposed 
all the remainder of our lives. Each cause depends upon a preceding 
one ; a long chain of circumstances links together all things, both 
public and private. Therefore we must bear all things with fortitude, 
since all things come to pass, and do not, as we suppose, happen. Our 
joys or sorrows have been determined long ago ; and although a great 
variety of items distinguishes the lives of individuals, the sum total 
is the same. Perishable creatures ourselves, that which we have 
received is perishable likewise. 

A comparison of trie above with the following passage 
exhibits a similarity which could only have proceeded 
from the same mind and the same pen : for it is to be 
remembered, that though the Eomans were imitators of 
the Greeks, they did not copy one another ; and through- 
out the whole field of Eoman literature no example could 
be found of a poet transferring to his works the exact 
sentiments, tone of thought, and turn of expression of 
another Latin author : — 

Fatis agimur, ceditefatis : 

Non sollicitae possunt curse 

Mutare rati stamina fusi. 

Quicquid patimur, mortale genus, 

Quicquid facimus, venit ex alto ; 

Servatque suae decreta colus 

Lachesis, dura revoluta manu. 

Omnia certo tramite vadunt 

Primusque dies dedit extremum. 

Non ilia Deo vertisse licet 

Quce nexa suis currunt causis. 

It cuique ratus, prece non ulla 

Mobilis, ordo. (Edip. 980. 

We are led by destiny — yield then to its power. Anxious care can- 
not change the thread spun by the distaff of the Fates. Whatever we 
mortals do or suffer comes from on high ; and Lachesis observes the 
decrees of the wheel which revolves beneath her pitiless hand. All 
things proceed in a fixed path, and the first day of life has determined 
the last. God has not power to change the chain of causes and effects. 
Each has its fixed order, which no prayers can alter. 



432 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Even the philosophical inconsistencies l traceable in the 
prose treatises are repeated in the tragedies. In one 
letter 2 he affirms his belief that the soul of Scipio Africanus 
has ascended into heaven as a reward of his virtue and 
piety ; in another 3 he asserts the gloomy doctrine that 
death is annihilation : " Mors est non esse." In like 
manner in the " Troades " the Chorus declares that " the 
happy Priam wanders amongst pious souls in the safe 
Elysian shades;" 4 and yet, with an inconsistency which 
the Letters of the philosopher alone account for, another 
passage in the same tragedy declares that the spirit 
vanishes like smoke, that after death is nothingness, and 
death itself is nothing. 5 

On such internal evidence as this rests the probability, 
almost amounting to certainty, that Seneca the phi- 
losopher, and the author of the ten tragedies, are one and 
the same. 6 

Notwithstanding their false rhetorical taste, and the 
absence of all ideal and creative genius, the tragedies of 
Seneca found many admirers and imitators in modern 
times. The Trench school of tragic poets took them for 
their model : Corneille evidently considered them the 
ideal of tragedy, and Eacine servilely imitated them. 
Their philosophy captivated an age which thought that 
nothing was so sublime as heathen philosophy ; and yet, 
that same age derived its notions of ancient philosophy 



1 See Nisard. 2 lxxxvi. 3 liv. * v. 156. 5 v. 393. 

6 Of the closeness with which Seneca imitated the Greek tragic poets the 
two following passages will serve as specimens : — 

Animam senilem mollis exsolvit sopor. 

(Edip. 788. 
2/xiKpa 7raXata cco/xar evvd^ei poTvq. 

Quis eluet me Tanais. Hippolyt. 715. 

0'ip.ai yap ovt av "larpov, ovre Qacrtv av 

vfyai >ca6app.a (Ed. Tyr. 1227. 



FRENCH SCHOOL OF TRAGEDY. 433 

from the Romans instead of from the original Greek 
sources ; and its poetical taste, as far as it was classical, 
was formed on a study of Roman dramatic literature, 
before the excellence of the Attic drama was sufficiently- 
known to be appreciated. 



2f 



434 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTEE III. 

BIOGRAPHY OF PERSIUS — HIS SCHOOLBOY DAYS — HIS FRIENDS — HIS 
PURITY AND MODESTY — HIS DEFECTS AS A SATIRIST — SUBJECTS OF 

HIS SATIRES — OBSCURITY OF HIS STYLE COMPARED WITH HORACE 

— BIOGRAPHY OF JUVENAL— CORRUPTION OF ROMAN MORALS — 
CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE SATIRES — THEIR HISTORICAL 
VALUE — STYLE OF JUVENAL — HE WAS THE LAST OF ROMAN 

satirists. 

Aulus Persius Flaccus (born a.d, 34). 

Eoman satire subsequently to Horace is represented by 
Aulus Persius Placcus and Decimus Junius Juvenalis. 
Persius was a member of an equestrian family, and was 
born, according to the Eusebian Chronicle, a.d. 34, at 
Volaterrse in Etruria. He was related to the best 
families in Italy, and numbered amongst his kindred, 
Arria, the noble-minded wife of Psetus. His father died 
when he was six years old, and his mother, Eulvia 
Sisenna, married a second time a Eoman knight named 
Pusius. In a few years she was again a widow. Persius 
received his elementary education at his native town; 
but at* twelve years of age he was brought to Pome, and 
went through the usual course of grammar and rhetoric, 
under Pemmius Palsemon 1 and Yirginius Flavus. 2 The 
former of these was, like so many men of letters, a freed- 
man, and the son of a slave. He was, according to 
Suetonius, 3 a man of profligate morals, but gifted with 
great fluency of speech, and a prodigious memory. He 



1 Juv. vi. 451 ; vii. 219. 2 Suet. Pers. Vit. 

3 De Illust. Gram. 23 



SCHOOLBOY DAYS OF PERSIUS; 435 

was rather a versifier than a poet, and, like so many 
modern Italians, possessed the talent of improvising. He 
was prosperous as a schoolmaster, considering the very 
small pittance which the members of that profession 
usually earned, for his school brought him in forty 
sestertia per annum (about 325J.)- 1 Virginius Flavus is 
only known as the author of a treatise on Ehetoric. 

Persius himself gives 2 an amusing picture of his 
schoolboy idleness, his love of play, and his tricks to 
escape the hated declamation which, in Eoman schools, 
formed a weekly exercise : 3 — 

Ssepe oculos, memini, tangebam parvus olivo, 
Grandia si nollem morituri verba Catonis 
Discere non sano multuro. laudanda magistro, 
Quae pater adductis sudans audiret amicis. 
Jure ; etenim id summum, quid dexter senio ferret, 
Scire erat in voto ; danmosa canicula quantum 
Raderet ; angustse collo non fallier orcae ; 
Neu quis callidior buxum torquere flagello. 

Oft, I remember yet, my sight to spoil, 
Oft, when a boy, I bleared my eyes with oil : 
What time I wished my studies to decline, 
Nor make great Cato's dying speeches mine ; 
Speeches my master to the skies had raided, 
Poor pedagogue ! unknowing what he praised ; 
And which my sire, suspense 'twixt hope and fear, 
With venial pride, had brought his friends to hear 

For then, alas ! 'twas my supreme delight 
To study chances, and compute aright, 
What sum the lucky sice would yield in play, 
And what the fatal aces sweep away ; 
Anxious no rival candidate for fame 
Should hit the long-necked jar with nicer aim ; 
Nor, while the whirling top beguiled the eye, 
With happier skill the sounding scourge apply. 

Gifford, 

At sixteen, Persius attached himself to the Stoic phi- 
losopher Annacus Cornutus, by whom he was imbued 
with the stern philosophical principles which occupy so 



1 Ruperti in Juv. vii. 2 Sat. iii. 44. y Quint. I. 0. ii. 7 

2 f 2 



436 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

prominent a place in his Satires. The friendship which 
he formed thus early in life continued until the day of 
his death. The young Lucan was also one of his intimate 
associates, whose philosophical and poetical tastes were 
similar to his own, and who had a profound admiration 
for his writings. He was acquainted with Seneca, but 
had no very great regard either for him or his works. 
Csesius Bassus, to whom he addressed his sixth Satire, 
was also one of his intimates. 1 It redounds greatly to 
his honour that he enjoyed the friendship of Psetus 
Thrasea, one of the noblest examples of Roman virtue. 2 
Persius died prematurely of a disease in the stomach, at 
the age of twenty-eight. He left a large fortune to his 
mother and sister ; and his library, consisting of seven 
hundred volumes, together with a considerable pecuniary 
legacy, to his beloved tutor, Cornutus. The philosopher, 
however, disinterestedly gave up the money to the sister 
of his deceased friend. 

Pure in mind and chaste in life, Persius was free from 
the corrupt taint of an immoral age. He exhibited all 
the self-denial, the control of the passions, and the stern 
uncompromising principles of the philosophy which he 
admired, but not its hypocrisy. Stoicism was not, in his 
case, as in that of so many others, a cloak for vice and 
profligacy. 

Although Lucretius was, to a certain extent, his model, 
he does not attack vice with the biting severity of the 
old satirist. He rather adopts the caustic irony of the 
old Greek comedy, as more in accordance with that style 
of attack which he himself terms — 

petulanti splene cachinno. a 



1 Quintilian (I. 0. x. 96) pronounces the lyric poetry of Bassus inferior 
only to that of Horace ; but only two lines of his poems are extant. He 
was destroyed by the same eruption in which Pliny the elder perished. 

2 Tac. Am. xvi. 21. 3 Sat. i. 12. 



HIS PURITY AND MODESTY. 437 

Xor do we find in his writings the fiery ardour, the 
enthusiastic indignation, which burn in the verses of 
Juvenal; hut this resulted from the tenderness of Ins 
heart and the gentleness of his disposition, and not 
from any disqualification for the duties of a moral 
instructor, such as weak moral principle, cr irresolute 
timidity. 

Although he must have been conscious that the dan- 
gerous times during which his short life was passed ren- 
dered caution necessary, still it is far more probable that 
his purity of mind and Idnclliness of heart chsmclined 
him to portray vice in its hideous and loathsome forms, 
and to indulge in bitterness of invective which the pre- 
valent enormities of his times deserved. It may be 
questioned whether obscenities like those of Juvenal, 
notwithstanding purity of intention, best promote the 
interests of virtue. It is to be feared that often the 
passions are excited and the human heart rendered more 
corrupt by descriptions of vice, whilst the moral lesson is 
disregarded. 

Persius evidently believed that reserve and silence on 
those abominations which make the pure-minded shudder 
with horror, and call up a blush upon the cheek of inno- 
cence, would more safely maintain the dignity and purity 
of virtue, than the divesting himself of that virgin 
modesty (virgineus Me pador) which constituted the 
great charm of his character. His uprightness and love 
of virtue are shown by the uncompromising severity with 
which he rebukes sins of not so deep a die ; and the heart 
which was capable of being moulded by his example, and 
influenced by his purity, would have shrunk from the 
fearful crimes which defile the pages of Juvenal. 

The greatest defect in Persius as a satirist, is, that the 
philosophy in which he was educated rendered him too 
mdhTerent to the affairs which were going on in the 
world around him. Politics had little interest for him ; 



438 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

he lived within himself a meditative life ; wealth and 
splendour he despised. His contemplative habits led him 
to criticise, as his favourite subjects, false taste in poetry 
and empty pretensions to philosophy. His modest and 
retiring nature found little sympathy with the passions, 
the tumults, the business, or the pleasures which agitated 
Rome. He was more a student of the closet than a man 
of the world. Horace mingled in the society of the 
profligate : he considered them as fools, and laughed 
their folly to scorn. Juvenal looked down upon the 
corruption of the age from an eminence where, involved 
in his virtue, he was safe from moral pollution, and 
punished it like an avenging Deity. Persius, pure in 
heart and passionless by education, whilst he lashes wick- 
edness in the abstract, almost ignores its existence, and 
modestly shrinks from laying bare the secret pollutions 
of the human heart, and from probing its vileness to the 
bottom. The amiability, and above all the disinterested- 
ness, which characterise Ins Satires, fully account for the 
popularity which they attained immediately on then 
publication by Cornutus, and the panegyrics of which he 
was the subject in later times. " Persius," writes Quin- 
tilian, 1 " multum et verse glorise, quamvis uno libro 
meruit." Many of the early Christian writers thought 
that his merits fully compensated for the obscurity of his 
style ; and Grifford 2 observes, " The virtue he recom- 
mends he practised in the fullest extent ; and, at an age 
when few have acquired a determinate character, he left 
behind him an established reputation for genius, learning, 
and worth." 

The works of Persius are comprised within the com- 
pass of six Satires, containing, in all, about 650 lines. 
And from the expression of Quintilian, already cited, and 
supported by a passage of Martial, there is reason to 



Lib. x. 1. 2 Trans, of Juv. and Pers. vol. i. p. lxvii. Introd. 



SUBJECTS OF HIS SATIRES. 4<39 

suppose that all he wrote is now extant. To his Satires 
is prefixed a short but spirited introduction in choliambics, 
i. t\ lame iambics, in which, for the iambus in the sixth 
plaee, there is substituted a spondee. 

This proemium bears but little relation to his work ; 
but he was accustomed to similar irrelevancy in the para- 
bases of the old Attic comedy, which he had studied. In 
his first Satire he exposes and accounts for the false 
and immoral taste winch affected poetry and forensic 
eloquence, attacks the coxcombry of public recitation, and 
parodies the style of contemporary writers, in language 
which our ignorance of them prevents us from appre- 
ciating. In the second, which is a congratulatory address 
to his dear friend Macrinus on his birthday, he em- 
bodies the subject-matter of the second Alcibiades of 
Plato ; l a dialogue which Juvenal also had in view in the 
composition of his tenth Satire. In this poem, the de- 
grading ideas which men have formed respecting the Deity, 
the consequent selfishness and even impiety of their 
prayers, are followed by sentiments on the true nature 
of prayer, which even a Christian can read with ad- 
miration : — 

Quin danius id superis, de magna quod dare lance 
Non possit magni Messalge lippa propago ; 
Conipositum jus fasque animo sanctosque recessus 
Mentis et incoctum generoso pectus honesto : 
Haec cedo, ut admoveam templis, et farre litabo. 2 

No, let me bring the immortals what the race 
Of great Messala, now depraved and base, 
On their huge charger cannot, — bring a mind 
Where legal and where moral sense are joined 
With the pure essence ; holy thoughts that dwell 
In the soul's most retired and sacred cell ; 
A bosom dyed in honour's noblest grain — 
Deep-dyed ; — with these let me approach the fane, 
And Heaven will hear the humble prayer I make 
Though all my offering be a barley-cake. 



1 See Spect. No. 207. 2 Sat. ii. 71. 



440 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

In the third, he endeavours to shame the ingenuous 
youth out of an idle aversion to the pursuit of wisdom, 
and contrasts the enjoyments of a well-regulated mind 
with ignorance and sensuality : the picture which he draws 
of the fate of the sensualist is very powerful : — 

Turgidus hie epulis atque albo ventre lavatur, 
Gutture sulfureas lente exhalante mephites ; 
Sed tremor inter vina subit, calidumque trientem 
Excutit e manibus ; dentes crepuere retecti ; 
Uncta cadunt laxis tunc pulmentaria labris. 
Hinc tuba, candelse ; tandemque beatulus, alto 
Compositus lecto, crassisque lutatus amomis, 
In portam rigidos calces extendit ; at ilium 
Hesterni capite induto subiere Quirites. 1 

Now to the bath, full gorged with luscious fare, 

See the pale wretch his bloated carcase bear ; 

While from his lungs, that faintly play by fits, 

His gasping throat sulphureous steam emits ! 

Cold shiverings seize him, as for wine he calls, 

His grasp betrays him, and the goblet falls ! 

From his loose teeth the lip, convulsed, withdraws, 

And the rich cates drop through his listless jaws. 

Then trumpets, torches come, in solemn state ; 

And my fine youth, so confident of late, 

Stretched on a splendid bier and essenced o'er, 

Lies, a stiff corpse, heels foremost at the door ; 

Eomans of yesterday, with covered head, 

Shoulder him to the pyre, and — all is said. Oifford. 

One more quotation must be made from this noble 
Satire, which is alluded to by St. Augustine, 2 and in 
which Persius enunciates the sublime truth, that the 
most fearful punishment which can befall the profligate 
is the consciousness of what they have lost in rejecting 
virtue : — 

Magne pater divum, saevos punire tyrannos 

Haud aha ratione velis, quum dira libido 

Moverit ingenium ferventi tincta veneno ; 

Virtutem videant intabescantque relicta ! 3 

Dread sire of gods ! when lust's envenomed stings 
Stir the fierce natures of tyrannic kings — 



Sat. iii. 98. 2 De Civ. Dei, v. 3 Sat. iii. 35. 



SUBJECTS OF HIS SATIRES. 441 

When storms of rage within their bosoms roll, 
And call in thunder, for thy just control — 
O, then relax the bolt, suspend the blow, 
And thus, and thus alone, thy vengeance show. 
In all her charms, set Virtue in their eye, 
And let them see their loss, despair, and — die. Clifford. 

In the fourth Satire, Nero is represented in the cha- 
racter of Alcibiades ; and Plato's first Dialogue, which 
bears the name of the Athenian libertine, furnished the 
foundation and many of the sentiments. 

The fifth is the most elaborate of all the poet's works. 
It is addressed to Cornutus, and is in the form of a 
dialogue between the philosopher and his pupil. The 
style is more finished than usual, and more adorned with 
the graces of poetry ; his amiable nature beams forth in 
all the warmth of a grateful heart ; and although he 
does not display any original philosophical research, he 
exhibits great learning, and an accurate acquaintance 
with the Stoic philosophy. 

If the fifth Satire is the most elaborate, the sixth 
is, without doubt, the most delightful of the works of 
Persius. It is addressed to his dear friend Csesius Bassus, 
and overflows with kindness of heart. The poet speaks 
of the duties of contentment, and of ministering to the 
distresses of others ; the hatefulness of envy ; the mean- 
ness of avarice, beneath whatever disguise it may be 
veiled ; his own determination to use and not abuse his 
fortune ; whilst there may be traced through the whole a 
foreboding, yet a cheerful one, that his weary course will 
soon be run, and that his heir will soon succeed to his 
possessions. 1 

Such was the character of Persius as mirrored in his 
little volume. The gloomy sullenness of Stoicism was 
not able to destroy the natural amiability and placid 
cheerfulness of his temper. Its darkness affected his 



1 See especially ver. 61. 



442 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

style, but not his disposition. The fault which has been 
universally found with the style of Persius, is difficulty 
and obscurity. This would be the natural consequence 
of his Stoical education. The Stoics were proverbially 
obscure and dark in their teaching ; and Persius, who had 
not imbibed all the profoundness of their philosophy, had 
still caught their language and their manner of expres- 
sion, and whilst he was infected by their faults he ac- 
quired also their picturesqueness and liveliness of illus- 
tration. Nor does it appear that his style was considered 
obscure enough by his contemporaries to interfere with 
its popularity. It is probable that his obscurity is not 
absolute, but only relative to the knowledge of the lan- 
guage possessed in modern times. His was the conver- 
sational Latin of the days in which he lived; and as a 
great change had taken place from the Latin of Cicero 
and Livy to that of Tacitus and Seneca, doubtless the 
conversational Latin of Horace, and even of Juvenal, 
would differ from that of Persius. If this be the case, 
the Satires of Persius constitute the only example of this 
Latin, and we have no other by a comparison of which 
we can explain and illustrate his modes of expression. 
Whatever, therefore, is unusual becomes at once a source 
of difficulty and obscurity. 1 The short description which 
Persius represents his preceptor as giving of his style, 
supports this assertion : — 

Verba togse sequeris junctura callidus acri 
Ac teres modico, pallentes radere mores 
Doctus et ingenue- culpam defigere ludo. 2 

Confined to common life, thy numbers flow, 

And neither soar too high, nor sink too low ; 

There strength and ease in graceful union meet, 

Though polished subtle, and though poignant sweet ; 

Yet powerful to abash the front of crime, 

And crimson error's cheek with sportive rhyme. 

Gifford. 

1 See this argument quoted by Gifford, ii. xlvii., from H. Frere, v. 14. 
2 Sat. v. .14. 



HORACE COMPARED WITH PERSIUS. 1*43 

As the toga had, since the time of Augustus, been only 
worn by the higher orders, whilst the common people 
were content wdth the tunica, it is clear that the words 
verba togce signify the language of polished society. One 
cause, therefore, of the difficulty of the style of Persius 
may be our want of familiarity with the conversational 
Latin used in Iris time by the superior classes. Excessive 
subtlety may have been mistaken for refinement ; and an 
affectation of pliilosophy, and an enigmatic style, may 
cause obscurity to us which was quite intelligible to his 
contemporaries. 

It is evident that Persius had carefully studied, and 
was quite well acquainted with, the Satires of Horace; 
but tbe influence which. Horace produced upon his mind 
went no further than to impress upon his memory certain 
phrases whicb lie reproduced in a more perplexed form, 
more in unison with the fashionable Latin of his day. 
The expression of Horace — 

naso suspendis adunco 
Ignotos, 1 

becomes, in the Satires of Persius — 

Excusso populum suspendere naso. 2 

Si vis me fiere, dolendum est 
Prinium ipse tibi. 3 

becomes, when paraphrased by his imitator — 

Plorabit qui me volet incurvasse querela. 4 

The simplicity of Horace in the words — 

Totus teres atque rotundus 
Externi ne quid valeat per laeve morari, 5 

is exchanged for the more involved phrase — 

TJt per laeve severos 
Effundat junctura ungues. 6 



Sat. I. vi. 5. 2 Ibid. i. 118. 3 A. P. 102. 4 Sat. L 91, 

Ibid. Il.vii. 87. ' Ibid. i. 65. 



444 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

He adopts Horace's wish, 1 preserving every idea in the 
passage — 

Osi 

Sub rastro crepet argenti mihi seria dextro 
Hercule. 2 

Horace's acquirements in geometry — 

Scilicet ut possem curve- dignoscere rectum, 3 

are thus awkwardly rendered — 

rectum discernis, ubi inter 
Curva subit. 4 

And, not to multiply examples which, whilst they show 
that Persius was an admirer of Horace, prove that what 
was pure natural inspiration in the latter, required effort 
in the former, the idea of Horace — 

Clamant periisse pudorem 
Cuncti pene patres, 5 

is exchanged by Persius for the forced metaphor — 

Exclamet Melicerta perisse 
Frontem de rebus. 6 

Rhetorical affectation infested all the literature of this 
age ; we can scarcely, therefore, be surprised to find that 
it is one of the characteristics of the Satires of Persius. 
The age of public recitation had already begun, of which 
Juvenal speaks some years later. When in one place he 
describes the ardour and enthusiasm which pervaded 
Eome, on the announcement of a new work by a popular 
author — * 

Curritur ad vocem jucundam et carmen amicse 
Thebaidos lsetam fecit cum Statius urbem 
Promisitque diem. 

When Statius fixed a morning to recite 
His Thebaid to the town with what delight 
They flocked to him. 



i Sat. II. vi. 10. 2 Ibid. ii. 10. 3 Ep. II. ii. 4. * Sat. iv. 12 

5 Ep. II. i. 80. 6 Sat. v. 10, 3. 7 Ibid. vii. 82. 



BIOGRAPHY OF JUVENAL. 445 

in another, 1 like Horace, lie complains of the annoy- 
ance of these recitations ; and in a third, 2 he considers it 
one o^ the causes which rendered the most desolate and 
solitary country place preferable to Eome. 

The style of writing, therefore, snitable to this prac- 
tice, was a declamatory one, as the practice itself was in 
accordance with the oratorical tastes of the Eoman 
people. 

Juvenal. 

Decimus Jnnins Juvenalis, according to the few lines 
of biography generally attributed to Suetonius, was the 
son, or the adopted son, of a wealthy freedman. He 
amused himself with rhetoric and declamation until 
middle life ; but having, on one occasion, written a short 
satire upon Paris, the pantomime, he was tempted to 
apply himself to this species of writing. After some 
time he recited his piece with such success to a large 
audience, that he inserted it in one of his later com- 
positions. 3 He thus exposed himself to the enmity of 
the court, because his lines were supposed figuratively to 
apply to an actor who was a court favourite, and he was 
exiled to Egypt, under pretence of being appointed to 
the command of a cohort. There in a short time he 
died of grief at the age of eighty. 

The time of his birth is unknown, but he must have 
flourished in the reign of Domitian, towards the close of 
the first century after Christ ; and it is generally assumed 
that he was either born, or resided, at the Volscian town, 
which subsequently gave birth to the eminent schoolman, 
Thomas Aquinas. 4 Thus the greater portion of the life 
of Juvenal was passed, during a period of political horror 
and misery. The short reign of Vespasian was doubtless 
a blessing to Eome, but it was only a brief temporary 



2—13. 2 Ibid. iii. 9. » Ibid, vii. 90, 91. 4 Ibid. iii. 319. 



446 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

respite : the dark period of the last ten Caesars saw the 
utter moral degradation of the people, and the bloodiest 
tyranny and oppression on the part of their rulers. If, 
which is most probable, he lived to see the reigns of 
Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian, the spirits of the noble- 
minded satirist must have revived at seeing again a 
promise of national glory and prosperity. In the period 
gone by, rich as it was in material for his pen, it was 
fatally perilous to give utterance to his burning indig- 
nation ; but an opportunity, not to be lost, was then 
offered when emperors ruled, who were distinguished for 
ability and virtue, when justice and the laws were 
constitutionally administered, and the empire, wisely 
governed, enjoyed security and tranquillity. 

The picture of Roman manners, as painted by the 
glowing pencil of Juvenal, is truly appalling. The fabric 
of society was in ruins. The popular religion was 
rejected with scorn, and its place was not occupied by 
the creed of natural religion. Nothing remained but 
the empty pomp, pageant, and ceremonial. The admi- 
nistration of the state was a mass of corruption : freed- 
men and foreigners, full of artful cunning, but destitute 
of principle, had the ear of the sovereign, and filled their 
coffers with bribes and confiscation. The grave and 
decent reserve which was characteristic of every Eoman 
in olden times was thrown off even by the highest 
classes ; and emperors took a public part in scenes of 
folly and profligacy, and exposed themselves as cha- 
rioteers, as dancers, and as actors. Nothing was 
respected but wealth — nothing provoked contempt but 
poverty. 1 A vote was only valued for its worth in 
money; that people, whose power was once absolute, 
would now sell then souls for bread and the Circensian 
games. 

1 Sat. iii. 137, 148. 



PROFLIGACY OF ROMAN MORALS. 447 

Players and dancers had all honours and offices at their 
disposal. The city swarmed with informers who made 
the rich their prey : every man feared even his most 
intimate friend. To be noble, virtuous, innocent, was 
no protection : the only bond of friendship was to be 
an accomplice in crime. Philosophy was a cheat, and 
moral teaching an hypocrisy. The moralists "preached 
like Curii, but lived like bacchanals." 1 The very teacher 
would do his best to corrupt his pupil : the guardian 
would defraud his ward. Luxury and extravagance 
brought men to ruin, which they sought to repair by 
flattering the childless, legacy-hunting, and gambling; 
and even patricians would cringe for a morsel of bread. 
The higher classes were selfish and cruel, grinding and 
insolent to their inferiors and dependants. 2 Gluttony 
was so disgusting that six thousand sesterces (50£.) 
would be given for a mullet ; and the glutton would 
artificially relieve his stomach of its load, in order to 
prepare for another meal. 3 Crimes which cannot be 
named were common : men, for the worst of purposes, 
endeavoured to make themselves look like women; and 
even an emperor personated a female, and was given in 
marriage to one of his Greek favourites. 4 The streets of 
Rome were as dangerous as the Pomptine marshes or 
the Italian forests, from constant robbery, assault, and 
assassination. 

The morals of the female sex were as depraved as 
those of men : ladies of noble and royal blood would 
have lovers in their pay, and when they had lost the 
attraction of personal charms, would supply their place 
by the temptation of gold. One empress publicly cele- 
brated her nuptials with an adulterer in the absence of 
her lord; another gratified her wantonness by prosti- 



Sat. ii. 1. 2 Ibid. i. and v. 3 Ibid. ii. 

4 Tac. Ami. xv. 38. See also Juv. S. ii. 



448 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

tution. Even those who were not so profligate aped the 
manners and habits of men, and would even meet in 
mock combat ; and there was no public amusement so 
immoral or so cruel as not to be disgraced by the 
presence of the female sex. Licentiousness led to murder ; 
and poisoning by women was as common as it was in 
France and Italy in the sixteenth century. 1 

Times like these would even have shocked the urbane 
and gentle Horace : had he then lived, he would probably 
have thought such vice beyond ridicule, and his tone 
might have approached more nearly to the thundering 
indignation of Juvenal. " Society in the age of Horace 
was becoming corrupt; in that of Juvenal it was in a 
state of putrefaction." 2 

In this period of moral dearth the fountains of genius 
and literature were dried up. The orator dared not 
impeach the corrupt politician, or defend the victim of 
tyranny, when everyone thought the best way to secure 
his own safety was by trampling on the fallen favourite, 
now Caesar's enemy. The historian dared not utter his 
real sentiments. Poetry grew cold without the genial 
fostering encouragement of noble and affectionate hearts. 
There was criticism, grammar, declamation, panegyric 
and verse writing, but not oratory, history, or poetry. 
Juvenal, though himself not free from the declamatory 
affectation of the day, attacked the false literary taste of 
his contemporaries as unsparingly as he did their de- 
praved morality. From Sejanus to Cluvienus he allowed 
no one to escape. 

But noble as Juvenal's hatred of vice must be allowed 
to be, and fearless as are his denunciations, we look in 
vain throughout his poetry for indications of an amiable 
and kind-hearted disposition. He was not one to recall 
the lost and erring to a love of virtue, or to inspire a 



Sat. vi. e Nisard, vol. i. 461. 3 Sat. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE SATIRES; 449 

pure and enthusiastic taste for literature. His prejudices 
were violent ; he could see nothing good in a Greek or a 
freedman : he hated the new aristocracy with as bitter a 
hatred as Sallust. As a critic he is ill-natured; as a 
moralist he is stern and misanthropic. Mark, for 
example, the gloomy bitterness with which he speaks 
of old age, 1 and contrast it with the bright side of the 
picture, as drawn by the gentle Cicero in his incom- 
parable treatise. 

Deficient, however, as he was in the softer affections, 
his sixteen Satires exhibit an enlightened, truthful, and 
comprehensive view of Eoman manners, and of the in- 
evitable result of such corruption. Those whose moral 
taste was utterly destroyed would read and listen without 
profit, but they could not but tremble : his words are 
truth. The conclusion of the thirteenth Satire is almost 
Christian. It is unnecessary to quote from an author 
who is in every scholar's memory : it would even 
occupy too much space to make a fair selection from so 
many fine passages. The eleventh Satire is the most 
pleasing, and most partaking of the playfulness of 
Horace. The seventh displays the greatest versatility 
and the richest fund of anecdote. The twelfth is the 
most amiable. The description of the origin of civil 
society in the conclusion of the fifteenth is full of sound 
sense and just sentiments ; whilst the way in which he 
speaks of the insane bigotry of the Egyptians, exhibits 
his power of combining pleasantry with dignity. But the 
two finest Satires are those 2 which our own Johnson h^s 
thought worthy of imitation : one of wliicli (the tenth) 
Bishop Burnet, in his Pastoral Charge, recommended to 
his clerg} r ; and the noblest passage in them is that which 
describes the fall of the infamous Sejanus. 3 Few men 
could be so well adapted to transfer the spirit of Juvenal 



Sat. x. s»h fin. - Ibid. iii. and x. a Ibid. x. 5G— 07. 

2 G 



450 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

into English as Dr. Johnson. He had the same rude, 
plain-spoken, uncompromising hatred of vice ; and, though 
not unamiable, did his best to conceal what amiability 
he possessed under a forbidding exterior. He was not 
without gaiety and sprightliness ; but he concealed it 
under that stateliness and declamatory grandeur which 
he attributes to Juvenal. 

The historical value of Juvenal's Satires must not be 
forgotten. Tacitus lived in the same perilous times as 
he did ; and when they had come to an end, and it was 
not unsafe to speak, he wrote their public history. 
Juvenal illustrates that history by displaying the social 
and inner life of the Eomans. 1 Their works are parallel, 
and each forms a commentary upon the other. When 
such were the lives of individuals, one cannot wonder at 
the fate of the nation. 

The style of Juvenal is, generally speaking, the reflex 
of his mind : his views were strong and clear ; his style 
is vigorous and lucid also. His morals were pure in the 
midst of a debased age : his language shines forth in 
classic elegance in the midst of specimens of declining 
and degenerate taste. His style is declamatory, but it is 
not artificially rhetorical. He could not restrain himself 
from following the example of Lucilius : he could not 
dam up the torrent of his vehement and natural elo- 
quence. Whether his subject is noble or disgusting, his 
word-painting is perfect : we feel his sublimity — we 
shudder at his fidelity. The nature of the subject causes 
his language to be frequently gross and offensive; but his 
object always is to lay bare the deformity of vice, and to 



1 The authorities from which we derive our knowledge of the inner life 
and social habits and affections of the Romans are : — (1.) Ancient monu- 
ments. (2.) Cicero's speeches and letters ; Horace and the elegiac poets. 
(3.) The later classic poets, such as Juvenal, Martial, Statius. (4.) Gellius, 
Petronius, Seneca, Suetonius, the two Plinies. (5.) The grammarians. 
(6.) Greek authors, such as Plutarch, Lucian, Athenseus, &c. See, on this 
subject, Bekker's Gallus — Preface. 






STYLE OF JUVENAL. 451 

render it loathsome. He never indulges in indecency, in 
order to pander to a corrupt taste or to gratify a pru- 
rient imagination. For this reason his pages are less 
dangerous than those of more elegant and less indecent 
writers, who throw a veil over indelicacy, whilst they 
leave those qualities which blind the moral vision and 
inflame the passions. It must be remembered, also, that 
neither the dress, manners, nor conversation of ancient 
Borne were so decent and modest as those of modern 
times ; and, therefore, Eoman taste would not be so shocked 
by plain speaking as would be the case in an age of 
greater social refinement. Juvenal closes the list of 
Eoman satirists, properly speaking: the satirical spirit 
animates the piquant epigrams of his friend Martial ; but 
their purpose is not moral or didactic : they sting the 
individual, and render him an object of scorn and disgust, 
but they do not hold up vice itself to ridicule and 
detestation. 



2g2 



452 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER IV. 

BIOGRAPHY OF LUC AN— INSCRIPTION TO HIS MEMORY — SENTIMENTS 
EXPRESSED IN THE PHARSALIA — LUCAN AN UNEQUAL POET — 
FAULTS AND MERITS OF THE PHARSALIA — CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS 
AGE — DIFFICULTIES OF HISTORICAL POETRY — LUCAN A DESCRIP- 
TIVE POET — SPECIMENS OF HIS POETRY — BIOGRAPHY OF SILIUS 
ITALICUS — HIS CHARACTER BY PLINY — HIS POEM DULL AND 
TEDIOUS— HIS DESCRIPTION OF THE ALPS. 

M. Ann^eus Lucanus (born a.d. 39). 

At the head of the epic poets who flourished during the 
.silver age stands Lucan. He was a member of the same 
family as the Senecas, for the celebrated rhetorician of 
that name was his grandfather, and the Stoic philosopher 
his uncle. Another of his uncles, also, L. Junius Gallio, 
is mentioned in the Eusebian Chronicle as a celebrated 
rhetorician. This Gallio derived his surname from being- 
the adopted son of Jun. Gallio, who, by some, is supposed 
to have been the proconsul of Achaia, mentioned in the 
Acts of the Apostles. 1 

The father of Lucan, M. Annaeus Mela, was a Eoman 
knight, who made a large fortune as a collector of the 
imperial revenue. He is supposed by some to have been 
identical with the geographer Pomponius Mela, who was 
the author of a brief description, in three books, of the 
coasts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The style of this 
writer is concise, as is suitable to a mere sketch or 
abridgment ; and his matter, although derived from other 



Cli. viii. v. 12. 



BIOGRAPHY OF LUCAN. 453 

sources, and not from personal observation, is accurate 
and interesting. The poet was born at Corduba (Cor- 
dova), on the beautiful banks of the Buetis (Guadalquiver). 
His birthplace is thus elegantly alluded to by Statius, in 
a poem addressed to his widow, on the anniversary of his 
birth :— 

Vat is Apollinei magno memorabilis ortu 
Lux redit, Aonidum turba favete sacris. 

Hcec meruit, cum te terris Lucane dedisset 
Mixtus Castalise Bsetis ut esset aquse. 

Stat. Genethl. 

Pliny tells us that on his infant lips, as on those of 
Hesiod, a swarm of bees settled, and thus gave presage 
of his poetical career ; a tale which owes its origin 
entirely to the Greek tradition. Much which rests upon 
no foundation has been mixed up with the extant lives of 
Lucan; for example, the favour shown him, whilst a 
child, by Nero ; his consequent elevation in his boyhood 
to the rank of a senator ; and his defeat of the Emperor 
in a poetical contest at the quinquennial games, insti- 
tuted by the latter, in which no one entered with any 
other view than that their royal antagonist might have 
the credit of a mock victory. 1 The enmity of the jealous 
emperor can be accounted for without having recourse to 
so insane a competition. 

It is probable that Lucan was very young when he 
came to Eome; that his literary reputation was soon 
established ; and that Nero, who could not bear the idea 
of a rival, forbade him to recite his poems, which was 
now the common mode of publication. Nor was he 
content with silencing him as a poet, but also would not 
allow him to plead as an advocate. 2 Smarting under this 
provocation he hastily joined a conspiracy against the 
emperor's life, and signalised himself by the bitterness of 
his hatred against his powerful enemy. The ringleader 

1 Suet. V. Neron. 12. 8 Tac. Ann. xv. 49. 



454 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

of this plot was Piso, 1 a tragic poet of some talent, a 
skilful orator, and a munificent man. But he was de- 
ficient in decision and infirm of purpose : the plot 
therefore failed. When Lucan's passion cooled he as 
quickly repented, and was pardoned on condition of 
pointing out his confederates. In the vain hope of 
saving himself from the monster's vengeance, he actually 
impeached his mother. The upright historian contrasts 
this stain on the poet's character with the courage which 
Epicharis displayed. This noble woman was incapable of 
treason. Tacitus describes the resolution with which she 
scorned the question. 2 "The scourge, the flames, the 
rage of the executioners, who tortured her the more 
savagely, lest they should be scorned by a woman, were 
powerless to extort a false confession." Lucan never 
received the reward which he purchased by treachery. 
The warrant for his death was issued, and he caused his 
veins to be cut asunder. As the stream of his life's 
blood flowed away, he repeated from his own poem the 
description of a soldier expiring from his wounds. 3 He 
died in the twenty-seventh year of his age ; and the 
following inscription to his memory has been attributed 

to Nero : — 

M. Annseo Lucano Cordubensi Poetse 
Beneficio Neronis. Faraa servata. 

The sentiments contained in the Pharsalia, so far as he 
dared express them, breathe a love of freedom, and an 
attachment to the old Eoman republicanism. Although 
the imperial patronage which he at first enjoyed, and, 
perhaps, the better promise of the commencement of 
Nero's reign, tempted him to indulge in courtly flattery, 
still, even at that time, his praises of liberty evidently 
came from the heart. As the poem proceeds his senti- 
ments become more exalted; his virtuous indignation 



Tac. Ann. xv. 48. 2 Ibid, 57. 3 Ibid. iii. 635, or v. 811. 



THE rilARSALIA CRITICISED. 455 

gradually rises, until it pours forth a torrent of burning 
satire on the inhuman tyrant. This poem, the only one 
of his works which survives, is an epic in ten books ; its 
subject, the civil war between Caesar and Pompey. It 
bears evident marks of having been left unfinished, and 
oi' not having* received the last touches from the hand of 
the author. It was preceded by four other shorter 
poems — the first on the Death of Hector; the second on 
the Visit of Orpheus to the Infernal Eegions ; the third, 
on the Burning of Borne; the fourth addressed to his 
wife Polla Argentaria. He also wrote some prose works ; 
and Martial attributes to him some poems on lighter 
subjects. 1 

Lucan is an unequal poet : his Pharsalia is defaced 
with great faults and blemishes ; but at the same time it 
possesses peculiar beauties. Its subject is a noble one 
and full of historic interest, and is treated with spirit, 
brilliance, and animation. Its arrangement is that of 
annals, and therefore it wants the unity of an epic poem : 
it has not the connectedness of history, because the poet 
naturally selected only the most striking and romantic 
incidents ; and yet, notwithstanding these defects in the 
plan, the historical pictures themselves are beautifully 
drawn. The characters of Caesar and Pompey, for 
example, are master-pieces. Again, some passages have 
neither the dignity of prose nor the melody of poetry ; 
whilst others are scarcely inferior to any written by the 
best Latin poets. This inequality has caused the great 
diversity of opinions which have been held by critics 
respecting the merits of Lucan. Some have unjustly 
depreciated him; others, as groundlessly, have lauded 
him to the skies. Quintilian commended his ardent 
enthusiasm and lucidity of expression, 2 but qualified his 
praise by adding, that he would be admired by orators 

1 Ep. i. CI. 8 x. i. 90- 



456 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

rather than b}^ poets. ComeiHe preferred him to Virgil, 
of whom he was obviously a warm admirer. His poem 
furnishes materials and reason for this diversity of judg- 
ment ; but it may safely be asserted that his faults were 
due to the age in which he lived, whilst his beauties 
were the fruits and developments of his own native 
genius. His principal merit is originality : although he 
was not great enough to lead the taste of the age, and to 
rise superior to its false principles, he did not condescend 
to be a servile imitator even of those poets whose repu- 
tation was firmly established. There are many parallel- 
isms between his poetry and that of Virgil, but they are 
the parallelisms of a student, not of a plagiarist. 

Without adopting the unauthorized assumptions, found 
in some of his biographers, that he was educated under 
the immediate superintendence of his uncle Seneca, that 
Eemmius Palsemon taught him grammar, Virginius 
Flaccus rhetoric, and Cornutus philosophy, it is clear 
that his taste was formed and his talents drawn out in 
an age, the characteristics of which were pedantic eru- 
dition, inflated rhetoric, and dogmatic philosophy. It is 
clear, also, that even though Seneca was not his tutor, 
still the conceit and affectation which dimmed the 
transcendant abilities of the philosopher, exercised a 
baneful influence over the literary taste of his contem- 
poraries. In the midst of these influences Lucan was 
educated, and for that reason his poem is disfigured by 
commonplace maxims, pompous diction, an affectation of 
learning, a rhetorical exuberance which outstripped its 
subjects, and therefore produces the effect of frigidity. 
In a poem, the characters and events of which are 
historical, the real is in too strong contrast to the ideal, 
hence the effect of both is marred. The fidelity expected of 
the historian circumscribes the creative power of the 
poet. To the poet who constructs his work out of the 
materials of epochs which are beyond the reach of 



DIFFICULTIES OF HISTORICAL POETRY. 457 

history, the whole field of the past is open. The only 
limits within which he mnst restrain his genius are those 
of the probable : within these bounds he may conjure up 
the most magnificent ideal forms ; he may use the most 
gorgeous imagery, the most supernatural machinery : the 
whole wears an air of historic truth; as there are no 
realities with which his ideal can be compared and tested, 
truth never appears to be violated. 

But in history, almost contemporaneous with the age 
of the poet, every circumstance is recorded, every cha- 
racter well-known and estimated. If an act of bravery 
is exaggerated into one of superhuman heroism, or one 
who is known to have been a man, although a great 
man, recast in the heroic mould, we are struck at once 
with the falsehood ; and therefore the poet cannot venture 
on such efforts of genius. In a train of events, which 
the page of history enables us to trace from the 
beginning to the end, no difficulties can occur deserving 
of supernatural machinery, no dignus vindice nodus ; and 
thus, in the place of the Olympian Pantheon of Homer 
and Virgil, Lucan can only deify the popular but un- 
poetical principle of chance, and personify Fortune. 

This position may appear inconsistent with the charm 
which confessedly belongs to the modern historical 
romance; but then it is to be remembered, that the 
interest we take in the historical portions is purely 
historical, enlivened by the events grouping themselves 
round the hero : in fact, the interest of biography is 
united with that of history. The strictest accuracy, 
therefore, in matters wdiich fall within the range of 
history is perfectly compatible. The romantic interest 
depends on the inner or social life of the characters — 
which forms no part of history — in which, as there is no 
standard of comparison, the imagination of the poet is 
quite free and unfettered. But this is totally different 
from the plan on which such a poem as the Pharsalia is 



458 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

constructed. The vision of the Genius of Eome which 
appeared to Caesar at the fatal Bubicon, those which 
haunt the slumbers of the Cesareans in the plundered 
camp of Pompey, and the dream of Pompey, in which 
the secrets of the infernal regions are laid open by the 
shade of his departed wife Julia, are the nearest ap- 
proaches to that invisible world which the imagination 
of Homer disclosed, and which Yirgil reproduced: 1 but 
these are only isolated passages. 

It is impossible to be at once an historian and a poet : 
in the one character the author must restrain the flights 
of his imagination ; in the other, he must sacrifice truth. 
Nor is there any doubt of which character .we demand 
the conservation, when matters of history are concerned. 
We desiderate truth : we wish moot points to be settled 
and doubts solved. All imaginative pictures we look 
upon as interruptions, and cast them aside as warping 
the judgment and giving prejudiced views. Hence, our 
admiration of Lucan is called forth, not by considering 
his poem as an epic, but for the sake of isolated scenes, 
such as the naval victory off Marseilles ; splendid de- 
scriptions, such as that of the cruelties of Marius and 
Sulla; felicitous comparisons, that, for example, of 
Pompey to an aged oak ; and the epigrammatic terseness 
which gives force, as well as beauty, to his sayings. In 
a single line, for instance — 

Pauperiorque fuit tunc primum Caesare Roma — 

he describes the wealth and avarice of the conqueror, and 
in the well-known verse — 

Victrix causa Diis placuit sed victa Catoni — 

he depicts the disinterestedness of Cato. To this may be 
added, that the subject of the Pharsalia is, although a period 
of the deepest historical interest, ill adapted to poetry. 

'Lib. iii, 



LUCAN A DESCRirTIVE POET. 459 

Events so nearly contemporary were fitter for history 
and panegyric than for poetry ; and although they give 
scope for descriptive power and bold imagery, they are 
deficient in that mysterious and romantic character 
which is required for an epic poem. His imagination 
was rich — his enthusiasm refused to be curbed. They 
Were such as we might suppose would be nurtured by 
the warm and sunny climate of Spain. His sentiments 
often exhibit that chivalrous tone which distinguish the 
Spanish poets of modern times. We may discern the 
nobleness, the liberality, the courage, which once marked 
the high-born Spanish gentleman ; and the grave and 
thoughtful wisdom which makes Spanish literature so 
rich in proverbs, and which peeps out even from under 
the unreal conventionaHsms of the contemporary Eoman 
philosophy. 

Description forms the principal feature in the poetry 
of Lucan; it occupies more than one-half of the Phar- 
salia : so that it might almost as appropriately be termed 
a descriptive as an epic poem. Description, in fact, con- 
stitutes one of the characteristic features of- Eoman 
literature in its decline, because poetry had more than 
ever become an art, and the epoch one of erudition ; and 
thus a treasure of imagery was stored up suitable for 
descriptive embellishment. The finest parts of Persius 
are descriptive : even Martial, brief though his pieces 
are, delights in it ; and facility in this department is the 
strong point of Silius Italicus, and the sole merit of 
Valerius Flaccus. Owing to the enthusiasm with which 
Lucan throws himself into this kind of writing, he 
abounds in minute detail. He reminds one of the 
descriptive talent possessed in so eminent a degree by 
our own Thomson. Not a feature escapes his notice, 
whether it suggest ideas of the beautiful, the sublime, or 
the terrible. He is not content, as Virgil is, with a 
sketch — with broad lights and shadows ; he delights in a 



460 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

finished picture; he possesses the power of placing his 
subject strongly before the eyes, leaving little or nothing 
for the imagination to supply. He omits no means of 
attaining descriptive truth i 1 the inward state of feeling, 
the character of each passion is presented, not so much 
in its moral and psychical as in its physical develop- 
ments ; that which is internal is exhibited in its external 
symptoms, with the hand of a painter and the skill of 
the physiognomist. Virgil sketches, Lucan paints; the 
latter describes physically — the former philosophically. 
The following passages, which describe the passage of the 
Eubicon and the death of Pompey, are noble specimens 
of Lucan's style : — 

Jam gelidas Caesar cursu superaverat Alpes, 
Ingentesque ammo motus, bellumque futurum 
Ceperat. Ut ventum est parvi Rubiconis ad undas, 
Ingens visa duci patriae trepidantis imago, 
Clara per obscuram vultu mcestissima noctem 
Turrigero canos effundens vertice crines, 
Caesarie lacera, nudisque adstare lacertis, 
Et gemitu permixta loqui : Quo tenditis ultra ? 
Quo fertis mea signa, viri ? si jure venitis, 
* Si cives, hue usque licet. Tunc perculit horror 
Membra ducis, riguere comae, gressumque coercens 
Languor in extrema tenuit vestigia ripa. 

***** 
Caesar ut adversam superato gurgite ripam 
Attigit, Hesperiae vetitis et constitit arvis, . 
Hie, ait, hie, pacem, temerataque jura relinquo ; 
Te, Fortuna, sequor ; procul hinc jam fcedera sunto. 
Credidimus fatis, utendum est judice bello. 

Now Caesar, marching swift with winged haste, 
The summits of the frozen Alps had past ; 
With vast events and enterprises fraught, 
And future wars revolving in his thought. 
Now near the banks of Rubicon he stood ; 
When lo ! as he surveyed the narrow flood, 
Amidst the dusky horrors of the night, 
A wondrous vision stood confessed to sight. 



1 E. g, v. 165. 



PASSAGES QUOTED* tOl 

Her awful head Rome's reverend image reared, 
Trembling and sad the matron form appeared ; 
A towering crown her hoary temples bound, 
And her torn tresses rudely hung around ; 
Her naked arms uplifted e'er she spoke, 
Then groaning, thus the mournful silence broke : 
Presumptuous men ! oh, whither do you run ? 
Oh whither bear you these my ensigns on ? 
If friends to right, if citizens of Rome, 
Here to your utmost barrier are you come ! 
She said ; and sunk within the closing shade ; 
Astonishment and dread the chief invade ; 
Stiff rose his starting hair, he stood dismayed, 
And on the bank his slackening steps were stayed. 

***** 
The leader now had passed the torrent o'er, 
And reached fair Italy's forbidden shore ; 
Then rearing on the hostile bank his head, 
Here farewell peace and injured laws ! he said : 
Since faith is broke, and leagues are set aside, 
Henceforth thou, goddess Fortune, art my bride ! 
Let fate and war the great event decide. Bowe. 



Jam venerat horse 
Terminus extremee, Phariamque ablatus in alnum 
Perdiderat jam jura sui. Turn stringere ferrum 
Regia monstra parant. Ut vidit cominus enses 
Involvit vultus ; atque indignatus apertum 
Fortunae prsebere caput, tunc lumina pressit, 
Continuitque anlmam, ne quas effundere voces 
Posset et eeternam fletu corrumpere famam. 
At postquam mucrone latus funestus Achillas 
Perfodit, nullo gemitu consensit ad ictum 

Now in the boat defenceless Pompey sate, 
Surrounded and abandoned to his fate. 
Nor long they hold him in their power aboard, 
E'en every villain drew his ruthless sword : 
The chief perceived their purpose soon, and spread 
His Roman gown, with patience, o'er his head ; 
And when the cursed Achillas pierced his breast, 
His rising indignation close repressed. 
No signs, no groans, his dignity profaned, 
No tear his still unsullied glory stained. 
Unmoved and firm he fixed him on his seat, 
And died, as when he lived and conquered, great. 



462 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

C. SlLIUS Italicus. 

C. Silius Italicus was born in the reign of Tiberius, 
a.d. 25. The place of his birth is unknown. His sur- 
name, Italicus ; has led some to suppose that he was a 
native of Italica, in Spain. But it is not probable that, 
if this were the case, his friend and fellow-courtier 
Martial, when he compared his eloquence to that of 
Cicero, and his poetry to that of Virgil, 1 called him the 
glory of the Castalian sisters, 2 and felicitated him on his 
political honours, would have forgotten to claim him as 
a countryman. Others, with somewhat more show of 
reason, have imagined that his birthplace was the city of 
Corfinium, in Pelignia, which was called Italica, 3 because 
it was the head-quarters of the confederates in the Social 
"War ; whilst Stephens mentions a little town in Sicily, of 
the same name, which might have been his native place. 4 

Silius was celebrated as an advocate ; but in that age of 
affected and rhetorical display, a high reputation does not 
prove that his eloquence, although it might have dis- 
played a similar elegance of language, was more lively 
and stirring than his poetry. He was consul a.d. 68 ; an 
office which was also filled by his son, 5 and by another 
member of his family. 6 He was afterwards proconsul of 
Asia ; the duties of which lucrative office he appears to 
have performed with credit to himself. He was very 
wealthy ; and, as he grew old, retired from the perils of 
public life to enjoy his affluence, and the retirement of 
literary ease in his numerous villas. One cannot be 
surprised that an orator and a poet especially delighted 
in the. house of Yirgil, near Naples, and the Academy of 
Cicero, of both which he was the fortunate possessor. 
He lived to the age of seventy-five, and then starved 



1 Lib. vii. 63. 2 See also iv. 14 ; vi. 64 ; viii. 6Q ; ix. 86 ; xi. 49—51, 

3 Strabo, Geog. v. 167. 4 See notes to Plin. Ep. ed. Var. 

5 Mart. Ep. viii. 66. 6 Suet. v. Octav. 101. 



K*bl 



CHARACTER BY PLINY. 463 

himself to death, because he could not bear the pain of 
disease. " I have just been informed," writes Pliny the 
Younger, to his friend Caninius, 1 "that Silius Italicus 
lias put an end to his existence by starvation, at his 
Neapolitan villa. He had an incurable carbuncle, from 
the annoyance of which he took refuge in death, with a 
firm and irrevocable constancy. He enjoyed happiness 
and prosperity to his dying day, if we except the loss of 
the younger of his two sons ; but the elder and superior 
one survived him in the enjoyment of prosperity, and 
even of consular rank. The belief that he had volun- 
tarily come forward as a public accuser injured his 
reputation in the reign of Nero ; but, as a friend of 
YiteUius, his conduct was wise and his behaviour cour- 
teous. His career in the proconsulate of Asia was an 
honourable one, for he washed out the stain of his former 
activity by a praiseworthy abstinence from public affairs. 
He had no influence with the great ; but then he was safe 
from envy. All courted him, and were assiduous in 
paying their respects to him ; and as ill-health confined 
him to Iris bed, Iris chamber was thronged with visitors, 
beyond what might have been expected from his rank 
and station. Whenever he could spare time for writing, 
he passed it in learned conversation. His poems display 
elaborate care rather than genius : sometimes he invited 
criticism by recitations. Yielding to the suggestion of 
advancing years, he at length retired from Rome, and 
resided in Campania; nor had the accession of a new 
emperor (Trajan) power to entice him from his retire- 
ment. High praise to the monarch under whose rule he 
was free to act so ! — high praise to him who had courage 
to use that freedom ! His love of virtu caused in him a 
reprehensible passion for buying : he was the possessor of 
more than one villa in the same localities; and he so 

1 Ep. iii. 7. 



4G4 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

delighted in the newest purchase as to neglect that 
which he inhabited before. He had a vast collection of 
books, besides statues and busts, which he not only 
possessed, but almost worshipped. He kept Virgil's 
birthday more religiously than his own, and had more 
busts of him than of any one else, especially at Naples, 
where he was in the habit of visiting his tomb, as if it 
were a temple. In this tranquil retirement he exceeded 
his seventy-fifth year, his constitution being delicate rather 
than weakly. As he was the last consul made by Nero, 
so he died the last of those whom he had made. It is 
also worthy of remark that the consul, in whose year of 
office Nero died, died the last of Nero's consuls. When 
I call this to mind, I feel compassion for human frailty : 
for what is so brief as the longest span of human life !" 

Little interest attaches to the biography of one who 
owed a life of uninterrupted prosperity to his being the 
favourite and intimate of two emperors ; the one, a 
bloodthirsty tyrant — the other, a gross sensualist. 1 His 
ponderous work survives — the dullest and most tedious 
poem in the Latin language. Its title is " Punica :" it 
consists of seventeen books, and contains a history in 
heroic verse of the second Punic War. The iEneid of 
Virgil was his model, and the narrative of Livy fur- 
nished his materials. Niebuhr states that he read 
through the whole of his works with great care, and that 
he was quite convinced that he had taken everything 
from Livy, of whose work his is only a paraphrase. 2 The 
criticism of Pliny the Younger is, upon the whole, just : 
" Scribebat carmina majori cura qaam ingenio ,*" for, 
although it is impossible to read his poem with pleasure 
as a whole, his versification is harmonious, and will often, 
in point of smoothness, bear comparison with that of 
Virgil. The following passage is quoted by C. Barthius 



1 Nero and Vitellius. 2 Inteocl. Lect. on K. H. viii. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE ALPS. 405 

as one of the most favourable specimens of his senti- 
ments and style; and Cellarius, whose praise is extra- 
vagantly fulsome, gives it the epithet of " Aurea " 

Ipsa quidem virtus sibimet pulclierrima merces ; 
Dulce tamen venit ad manes quem gloria vitce 
Durat apud superos, nee edunt oblivia laudem. 

Some of his episodes, if considered as separate pieces, 
will repay the trouble of perusal ; and the following 
passage, which Addison thought worthy of translation, 
may be taken as a fair specimen of his descriptive 
powers : — 

THE ALPS. 

Cuncta gelu canaque seternuni grandine tecta, 
Atque aevi glaciem cohibent : riget ardua montis 
iEtherii facies, surgentique obvia Phcebo 
Duratas nescit flammis mollire pruinas. 
Quantum Tartareus regni pallentis hiatus 
Ad manes imos atque atrse stagna paludis 
A supera tellure patet ; tarn longa per auras 
Erigitur tellus et coelum intercipit umbra. 
Nullum ver usquam, nullique sestatis honores ; 
Sola jugis habitat diris sedesque tuetur 
Perpetuas deformis hyems : ilia undique nubes 
Hue atras agit et mixtos cum grandine nimbos. 
Nam cuncti flatus ventique forentia regna 
Alpina posuere domo caligat in altis 
Obtutus saxis, abeuntque in nubila montes. 

Stiff with eternal ice, and hid in snow, 
That fell a thousand centuries ago, 
The mountain stands ; nor can the rising sun 
Unfix her frosts and teach them how to run r 
Deep as the dark infernal waters he 
From the bright regions of the cheerful sky, 
So far the proud ascending rocks invade 
Heaven's upper realms, and cast a dreadful shade. 
No spring, no summer, on the mountain seen, 
Smiles with gay fruits or with delightful green, 
But hoary winter, unadorned and bare, 
Dwells in the dire retreat and freezes there, 
There she assembles all her blackest storms, 
And the rude hail or rattling tempests forms ; 
Thither the loud tumultuous winds resort, 
And on the mountain keep their boisterous court, 
That in thick showers her rocky summit shrouds. 
And darkens all the broken view with clouds. Addison. 

2 H 



466 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE 



CHAPTER V. 

C VALERIUS FLACCUS — FAULTS OF THE ARGONAUTICA — PAPINIUS 
STATIUS — BEAUTY OF HIS MINOR POEMS — INCAPABLE OF EPIC 
POETRY — DOMITIAN — EPIGRAM — MARTIAL — HIS BIOGRAPHY — 
PROFLIGACY OF THE AGE IN WHICH HE LIVED — IMPURITY OF HIS 
WRITINGS — FAVOURABLE SPECIMENS OF HIS POETRY. 

C. Valerius Flaccus. 

C. Valerius Flaccus nourished in the reign of Ves- 
pasian; and, according to an epigram of Martial, in 
which the poet advises his friend to leave the Muses for 
the drier bnt more profitable profession of a pleader, he 
was born at Patavium 1 (Padua). The frequent addition 
of the surnames Setinus Balbus have caused it to be 
supposed that he was a native of Setia, in Campania 
(Sezzo) ; but it is impossible to form any satisfactory 
conjecture as to their signification, and the statement of 
Martial is too definite to admit of a doubt. Quintihan 2 
asserts that, when he wrote, V. Flaccus had lately died : 
he was, therefore, probably cut off prematurely about 

A.D. 88. 

His only poem which is extant is entitled " Argonau- 
tica," and is an imitation, and, in some parts, a trans- 
lation, of the Grreek poem of Apollonius Bhodius, on the 
same subject. It is addressed to the Emperor, and in the 



1 Lib. i. 62, 77. * Inst. Orat. x. i. 90. 



DEFECTS OF THE ARGONAUTICA. 467 

proemium he pays a compliment to Domitian on his 
poetry, and to Titus on his victories over the Jews. 

He evidently did not live to complete his original 
design : even the eighth hook is unfinished ; and, from 
the events still remaining to be related, he probably 
planned an epic poem of the same length as that of 
Virgil, whose style and versification he endeavoured to 
imitate. An Italian poet, John Baptista Pius, continued 
the subject, by an addition to the eighth book, and by 
subjoining two more, the incidents of which were partly 
borrowed from Apollonius. 

Of his merits Quintilian speaks favourably in the 
passage already alluded to, and says, that in him literature 
had sustained a severe loss. The severer criticism of 
Scaliger is more precise and more judicious : — " Immatura 
morte prsereptus acerbum item poema suum nobis re- 
liquit. Est autem omnino duriusculus, penitus vero 
nudus Grratiarum comitate." The defects of the Argo- 
nautica are, in fact, rather of a negative than a positive 
character. There are no glaring faults or blemishes; 
none of the affectation or rhetorical artifices which belong 
to the period of the decline. There may be a little 
occasional hardness, and a few awkward expressions and 
paraphrases, but there is no bombast to outrage good 
taste, and no unmetrical cadences to offend the ear. But 
there is no genius, no inspiration, no thrilling fervour, 
no thoughts that breathe or words that burn. He 
never rises above a dead level. Everything is in accord- 
ance with decent and correct propriety. He has some 
talent as a descriptive poet : his versification is har- 
monious, and he attains to those superficial excellencies 
which are found in the prize poem of a painstaking, 
ingenious, and well-educated scholar. Virgil was an 
imitator : that is, his taste, like Eoman taste universally, 
was formed and trained by imitation; but his spirit 
disdained these trammels, and soared to originality. 

2 h 2 



468 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

V. Flaccus is scarcely ever original except when he is 
commonplace : he imitates Yirgil successfully, as far as 
the outward graces of style are concerned; but in the 
charm of natural simplicity, he always falls short of his 
great original. 

P. Papinius Statius (born a. d. 61). 

Towards the middle of the first century of the 
Christian era, 1 there arrived at Borne, from Naples, a 
grammarian, named P. Papinius Statius. He opened a 
school, and soon became so celebrated as a public in- 
structor, that he became tutor to the young Domitian, 
whose favour and affection continued after he became 
emperor. Some of his fame was also founded on gaining, 
in his boyhood, the prize in many public contests of 
poetry. Every year, between the ages of thirteen and 
nineteen, he is said to have been crowned. These 
contests were partly of an improvisatorial character ; and 
in an age when public readings and recitations were in 
vogue, and were the means which poets had of gaining fame 
and patronage, success of this kind was highly valued. 
The subject of one of his poems is said to have been the 
conflagration of the Capitol, during the struggle between 
the Yitellians and the supporters of Yespasian. 2 Statius, 
however, seems to have possessed no higher degree of 
poetical power, than a happy facility in versification, for 
he died 3 and left no works which have stood the test 
of time. 

A son, however, inherited poetical talents of the same 
kind, but of a far higher order than those of his father, 
and although, for a long time, he was entirely dependent 
upon his works for the means of living, and, notwith- 
standing thunders of applause, must starve, unless he 
can sell his play to the manager Paris, 4 the sunshine of 



A. B. 39. 2 Silv. v. iii. s a. d. 86. 4 Juv. vii. 82. 



THE SILV/E OF STATIUS. 469 

imperial favour which his father had enjoyed, shone upon 
him. 1 He purchased patronage, however, at the expense 
of grossly flattering the tyrant. This son, who bore the 
same name as his father, was the author of the Silva?, 
Thebaid, and Achilleid. He was born a.d. 61, and died 
in the prime of life, a.d. 95, at Naples, his native city. 
As no interesting particulars are recorded respecting his 
life, and as he is never mentioned by any classical author, 
except Juvenal, 2 it is impossible to say how the opinion 
arose which was entertained by Iris admirer Dante, and 
others, that he was in secret a defender of the Christians, 
and also himself a believer. 3 

He was a true Italian in the character of his genius. 
He had a thorough perception of the beauties of nature. 
His Silvse are full of truthful pictures. He possessed 
ready facility in versification, which was surpassed by no 
poet of classic antiquity except Ovid, and that impro- 
visatorial power for which his countrymen in the present 
clay are so often celebrated. As long as he was content 
to be a poet on a small scale, he was eminently suc- 
cessful. His Sylvse contain many .poetical incidents 
which might stand by themselves as perfect fugitive 
pieces. Brief effusions suggested by statues 4 and build- 
ings, 5 verses of compliment 6 and delicate flatterv, 7 or con- 
dolence 8 or congratulation. It matters not how light or 
trifling the subject, he can raise it and adorn it. He 
writes with equal beauty on the tree of his friend 
Atedius; 9 the death of a parrot; of the emperor's 
lion ; 10 the locks of Flavius Earinus ; n the rude freedom of 
the Saturnalia. 12 It is in these unpretending poems thai; 
we see his natural and unaffected elegance, his har- 
monious ear, and the truthfulness of his perceptions. 



'. Silv. iv. 2. 2 Lib. vii. 82. 3 Vide Vita Gyraldi, Dial. iv. de Poet. Lat. 
4 Lib I. i. 3, 5. 5 Lib. ii. 2. 6 Ibid. ii. 7. 7 Ibid. i. 2. 

8 Ibid. ii. 6 ; iii. 3. 9 Silv. ii. 5. 10 Ibid. 3. » Ibid. 4. 

12 Ibid. iii. 4. 



470 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

But the case is totally different when the subject is 
above him. 1 He had neither grasp of mind, nor vigour 
of imagination, to fit him for the task of an epic poet ; 
and, hence, his great work, the Thebaid, and his other 
unfinished epic, the Achilleid, are complete failures. 

In his minor poems he seems to trust to the natural 
powers of his genius ; he neither strains at producing 
effect, nor is he too solicitous about exact finish and 
laborious polish. Although not improvisatorial, they 
partake of that character, and have all its freshness 
combined with the advantage of written and corrected 
performances. His thoughts are inspired by his subject ; 
and its reality, which he was capable of appreciating, 
gives a life to his compositions. But the principal fault 
in his Silvse is too great a display of Greek learning. 
Every page is full of mythological allusions, which some- 
times render his graceful verses dry and wearisome, and 
must have rendered them acceptable to those only who 
were well versed in Greek literature : they never could 
have been universally popular. The qualities which 
recommend his SilvaB do not adorn his epic poetry. His 
imaginary heroes do not inspire and warm his ima- 
gination : he is not affected by their personality in the 
same way in which he is by the lawns, and groves, and 
forests, and sun, and skies of Italy. 

For this deficiency he attempts to compensate by 
extravagant bombast, totally out of keeping with the 
action of the poem, and by an attention to the 
theoretical principles of art, and an elaborate finish 
which must have cost him many hours of toil. Yet this 
perseverance is thrown away, and the effect produced by 
the contrast between the action and essence of the poem, 
and the language in which it is externally clothed, 
produces an effect contrary to that which was intended, 



1 Silv. J. 6 ; iv. 9, 



BTATIUS STUDIED HOMER. 471 

He was a skilful draughtsman, a gorgeous colourist, a 
pleasing landscape-painter, and a diligent student of the 
rules of art ; but his genius could not rise to the highest 
departments of art — he could not give the mind or the 
morale to those characters whose external features he was 
so apt in delineating. He owes the estimation in which 
he is held as an epic poet not to his absolute but his 
relative merit. He was the best of the heroic poets of 
his day. Statius, notwithstanding his defects, was evi- 
dently a profound student as well as an admirer of the 
Homeric poems ; and there are two points in which he 
has proved himself a successful imitator. These are his 
battles and his similes. His descriptions of the former 
are stirring and dramatic, and some of his similes will 
bear comparison with the best Latin specimens of this 
kind of illustration. When it is remembered that no 
epic poet has approached more nearly to Homer in the 
use of the simile than Dante, and that he equals the 
Greek bard in sublime and picturesque description, it 
may easily be imagined that these were the qualities in 
the poems of Statius which especially called forth his 
admiration. 

A few words only are necessary to describe the nature 
and subject-matter of the poems of Statius. The Silvse 
consist of thirty -two separate pieces. They are all 
hexametrical, with the exception of four in hendeca- 
syllabics, 1 one in Alcaic, 2 and one in Sapphic metre. 3 Each 
of the five books in which these poems are arranged has 
a prose dedication to some friend prefixed. The first 
being addressed to the poet Stella, the common friend of 
himself and Martial. 4 The title Silvse was given to 
these poems, on account of the very quality which 
constitutes their especial charm. They are the rude 



Lib. i. 6 ; ii. 7 ; iv. 3, 9. 2 Ibid. iv. 5. 3 Ibid. 7. 

4 SeeEpig. vi. 21. 



472 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

materials of thought, springing up spontaneously in all 
their wild luxuriance from the rich natural soil of the 
poet's imagination, unpruned, untrimmed, ignorant of 
that cultivated art which an affected and artificial age 
thought necessary to constitute a finished poem. " Such 
extemporaneous performances as these," says Quintilian, 
" are called Silvse : the author subsequently re-examines 
and corrects his effusions." 1 The Thebaid is comprised 
in twelve books, and its subject is the ancient Greek 
legends respecting the war of the Seven against Thebes. 
The composition of this work preceded the publication of 
the Silvse. The Achilleid was intended, doubtless, to 
embrace all the exploits of Achilles, but only two books 
were completed. 

Domitian. 

A paraphrase of the Phenomena of Aratus belongs to 
this age. It has been ascribed to Grermanicus, but its 
real author was Domitian, who, as well as Nero, wrote 
verses. 2 As far as language and versification are con- 
cerned, it is not without merit; but the subject is unsuit- 
able to poetry. 3 Domitian had taste, although his talents 
did not deserve the adulatory commendations of Quinti- 
lian ; 4 but he encouraged learned men ; and to his encou- 
ragement we owe those distinguished contemporary 
writers who, for one generation, arrested the downward 
progress of Eoman literature. 

Epigram. 

The Greek Epigram was originally, as the word implies, 
simply an inscription. It was therefore short and con- 

1 I. O. x. 3. 2 See a passage from Nero's Troica, in Meyer's Anthol. 

3 Nevertheless, Aratus enjoyed a large share of popularity. Csesar and 
Cicero translated his works ; Virgil and Manilius borrowed from them ; 
Ovid and Maximus Tyrius compared him with Homer ; and St. Paul was 
acquainted with his Phenomena, and quotes from it (Acts xvii. 28). There 
is an English translation of his works by Dr. Lamb. 

4 Lib. iv. i. 2 ; x. i. 19. 



LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS. 473 

cise ; its metre elegiac, as especially suited to the periodic 
structure of the sentiment, and its characteristic qualities, 
terseness and neatness. So long as it retained this 
character it was free from bitterness ; and the principal 
element of success in this species of composition was 
tact rather than genius, and a cultivated taste rather than 
poetical inspiration. Not only were Catullus, Virgil, and 
Ovid epigrammatists, but some Eoman literati arrived at 
mediocrity, or even excellence, in epigram who were not 
capable of becoming great poets. Julius Caesar wrote one 
on Terence, and perhaps the following neatly-turned lines ; 
although they have been ascribed to Augustus and Grer- 
manicus : — 

Thrax puer astricto glacie dum ludit in Hebro 

Pondere concretas frigore rupit aquas ; 
Dumque imee partes rapido traherentur ab amne, 

Abscidit tenerum lubrica testa caput. 
Orba quod inventum mater duin conderet urna, 

Hoc peperi flammis, cetera, dixit, aquis. 

Lutatius Catulus was the author of a quatrain on 
Eoscius the comedian; and the Anthology, amongst 
numerous others, contains one by Augustus, 1 and four of 
no merit by Maecenas, 2 together with those beautiful lines 
addressed by Hadrian to his soul, which Pope has imitated 
in his " Dying Christian :" — 

Animula vagula blandula, 
Hospes comesque corporis, 
Quae nunc abibis in loca 1 
Pallidula rigida nudula 
Nee ut soles dabis jocos. 

To the original characteristics of epigram the Eomans 
added that which constitutes an epigram in the modern 
sense of the term, pointedness either in jest or earnest, 
and the bitterness of personal satire. Common sense, 
shrewdness, and an acute observation of human nature 



1 See Meyer's Anthol. 2 Anthol. 52, 80, 81—84. 



474 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

were thus superadded to Greek gracefulness and elegance ; 
and the same nation which reduced the wild and unpre- 
meditated sarcasms of the Greek stage into the symme- 
trical form of satire, produced also the epigram as written 
by the pen of Martial. The same characteristics of the 
Roman mind which mark satire are visible also in epigram. 
Epigram is the concentration of satire. The desultory 
vagueness which is allowable in the latter, the variety 
of subjects, which are touched upon with irregular and 
unrestrained freedom, are, in the former, limited and de- 
fined. One idea is selected, and to this all the powers of 
the writer's acute mind are directed, and made to converge 
as to a point. It is not often that the harmless elements 
of Greek wit, such as the pun, or the pleasantry by sur- 
prise or unexpected turn (although these sometimes oc- 
cur), 1 are found in the Boman epigram. Smartness is 
generally connected with severity. The same bitter 
spirit which dictated the Archilochian epodes of Horace, 
which breathes throughout the indignant lines of Juvenal, 
points the shafts of Martial. The blows, however, which 
he aimed at vice could not be deadly, because he had no 
faith in virtue, because he delighted to grovel in the im- 
purity which he described. 

M. Valerius Martialis (born a.d. 43). 

All that is known of the life of Martial is derived from 
his own works ; and this is but little, for he says nothing 
of his early years, and did not begin to write until the 
reign of Domitian. Of his parents he undutifully tells 
as that they were fools for teaching him to read. 2 He was 
born at Bilbilis, a Spanish town in the province of 
Tarragon, 3 of the position of which nothing is known for 
certain, except that its site was an elevated one, 4 over- 



1 Lib. ix. 13 ; v. 33 ; iv. 65 ; v. 25, is something like an acrostic. 

s Lib. ix. Ep. 74. 3 Vide Nisard, Etudes, i. 335. 4 Lib. i. 50. 



LIFE OF MARTIAL. 475 

looking the river Salo, which flowed round its walls. It 
appears to have prided itself on its manufactures in gold 
and iron ; l to have been particularly famous for its arms ; 2 
and to have been one of the Eoman colonies dignified with 
the title of Augusta, 3 As Vespasian had conferred on the 
poet's native town, in common with the rest of Spain, 
the jus Latii* Martial was by birth a Eoman citizen ; 
and in the days of his popularity obtained this privilege 
for many of Iris friends. 5 His birthday was March l, 6 
a.d. 43, the third year of the reign of Claudius. 

In the twenty-second year of his age, the twelfth year 
of the reign of Nero, 7 he migrated to Eome. He was a 
great favourite of Titus and Domitian, by whom the 
"jus trium liber arum " was conferred upon him, 8 together 
with the rank of a Eoman knight, 9 and the honorary 
title of tribune. 10 In the reign of the latter he was 
appointed to the office of court poet, and received a pen- 
sion from the imperial treasury. 11 Hence during the 
latter part of his residence in Eome it is almost certain 
that, although not rich, he enjoyed a competency. He 
had a house in the city, and a little villa at Nomentum 
given him by Domitian. 12 Nevertheless, he is constantly 
complaining of his poverty, and thinks that every one 
grows rich but himself. He laments that poets receive 
nothing but compliments for their verses, whilst lawyers, 
and even common criers, gain an ample maintenance : — 
that " Minerva was a better patron than Apollo ; a fuller 
stream of wealth flowed through the Forum than from 
the fountain of Helicon, or the channel of Permessus." is 
He complains that he spends all he has, and either 
borrows money from his friends, or takes to another the 
presents he has given him, and querulously asks him to 



1 Lib. xii. 18. 


2 Lib. x. 103. 


3 Ibid. 


4 Plin. iii. 3. 


5 Lib. Hi. 94. 


6 Lib. x. 24. 


7 A. D. 65. 


8 Lib. iii. 94. 


9 Lib. v. 13. 


10 Lib. iii. 94. 


11 Nisard, 337. 


12 Lib. vii. 36 


13 Lib. i. 77. 









476 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

purchase them back again. 1 The roof of his villa lets in 
the rain ; and when his friend Stella sends him some tiles 
to mend it he reproaches him for not sending also a toga 
to protect the poor inmate. 2 

All this may have proceeded from the discontented 
feelings which poets and literary men so often indulge at 
seeing genius unrewarded, and affluence attending talents 
which, although if not so high an order, are of more 
general utility. Perhaps, too, though not absolutely poor, 
he was straitened in his circumstances, considering his 
social position and the demands which this entailed upon 
him. During thirty-five years he lived at Borne the life 
of a flatterer and a dependent, 3 and then returned to his 
native town. 4 As Horace, when in his quiet country re- 
tirement, sometimes regrets the enjoyments of the capital, 
although when at Eome he sighs for the pleasures of 
rural life, so Martial, when at Eome, longed for Bilbilis, 
and when he returned to Bilbilis regretted Eome. At 
this late period of his life he married a Spanish lady, 
named Marcella, whose property was amply sufficient to 
maintain him in affluence. Her estate he considers a 
little kingdom ; her gardens he would not exchange for 
those of Alcinous ; he praises her bowers, groves, foun- 
tains, streamlets, fish-ponds, and meadows ; and tells us 
the climate is so genial that the olive-grounds are green 
in January, and the roses blow twice in the year, like 
those of Psestum. 5 His wife he praises for her rare 
genius and sweet manners ; he tells her that no one could 
discover her provincial origin ; that her equal could not be 
found amongst the most elegant ladies in the capital ; and 
when inclined to forget Eome she alone is all that Eome 
ever was to him : — 

Tu desiderium dominse mihi mitius urbis 
Esse jubes ; Romam tu mihi sola facis. 6 



1 Lib. vii. 16. 2 Lib. vii. 35. 3 Lib. xii. 31. 

4 a. d. 100. 5 Lib. xii. 31. 6 Lib. xii. 21. 



UTS DISTASTE FOR THE COUNTRY. 477 

But, notwithstanding the delicate compliment which 
he pays to his rich wife — a compliment dictated probably 
more by his habit of courtly flattery than by sincerity of 
a H'ection — he evidently pined for Borne. He was fitted 
for crowds and not for solitude : his spirit was not pure 
enough to commune with itself. His delight had been 
so long to study the human heart in its worst develop- 
ments, to drag forth to public view its blackest plague- 
spots, that he would miss the foul models which he had 
so long studied. Provincial life was therefore utter dul- 
ness to him ; his only enjoyment was to reproduce the 
results of his observations on the life of the capital. 
Combining in himself the apparently inconsistent cha- 
racters of the flatterer and the satirist, he needed great men 
to whom he might look up for patronage and approba- 
tion, as well as moral wounds to probe and subjects to anato- 
mize. Borne alone supplied these ; and when he lost them 
he lost the intellectual food necessary for his existence. 
The absence of his accustomed pursuits, and the irremedi- 
able void thus created, is evident in many of his epigrams. 

The time of his death is uncertain, as the date of Pliny's 
elegant epistle to Priscus, in which it is mentioned, can- 
not be determined. 1 But as it is probable that the eleventh 
book of his Epigrams was published in the year in which 
he left Borne for Bilbilis, and as he apologises in the dedi- 
cation of his twelfth book to Priscus for his obstinate 
indolence during a period of three years, his death cannot 
have taken place before a.d. 104. It is, however, gene- 
rally supposed that his life was not prolonged much be- 
yond this date. Plis death may have been hastened by 
his distaste for a provincial life, and by the malice and envy 
of his new neighbours. 2 

According to his own account, in an epigram/ in which 
he contrasts himself with an effeminate fop, his appear- 



Lib. iii. 20, 21. 2 Proof, ad lib. xii. 8 Lib. x. 65. 



478 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

ance was rough and unpolished, his shaggy hair refused 
to curl, his cheeks were well- whiskered, and his voice was 
louder than the roar of a lioness. 1 It is impossible to 
believe the assertion which he makes respecting his own 
moral character, namely, that although his verses are licen- 
tious his life was virtuous, 

Lasciva est nobis pagina, vita proba est. 8 

— although measured by the corrupt standard of morals 
which disgraced the age in which he lived, he was pro- 
bably not worse than most of his contemporaries. The 
fearful profligacy which his powerful pen describes in 
such hideous terms spread through Eome its loathsome 
infection. As no language is strong enough to denounce 
the impurities of his page — impurities, in the description 
of which, the poet evidently revels with a cynical delight — 
so they were not merely creatures of a prurient imagina- 
tion but had a real existence. 

It may be said in extenuation of his crime, that the 
prevalence of vice produced the obscenity of the poet ; but 
no more can be said in defence of works in which the 
characters of vice are emblazoned in such shameless and 
unnatural deformity. Had he lived in better times, his 
talents, of which no doubt can be entertained, might have 
been devoted to a purer object ; as it was, his moral taste 
must have been thoroughly depraved not to have turned 
with loathing and disgust from the contemplation of such 
subjects, instead of voluntarily seeking them; for "out 
of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." In 
Martial we observe that paradoxical but still not unusual 
combination of varied wit, poetical imagination, and a 



1 There are two readings of the line to which allusion is here made, 
viz. : — 

Nobis filia fortius loquetur, 

and Non nobis lea fortius loquetur. 

The latter is the one adopted. £ Lib. i. 5. 



BEAUTY OP SOME OF HIS EPIGRAMS. 479 

happy power of graceful expression, not only with strong 
sensual passions, but with a delight in vice in its most 
hateful forms and attributes. 

Although the new feature which Martial added to the 
Greek epigram is such as has been described, and although 
his pages are polluted and denied, not all his poems are 
spiteful or obscene. Amidst some obscurity of style and 
want of finish, many are redolent of Greek sweetness and 
elegance. Here and there are pleasing descriptions of the 
beauties of nature j 1 and, setting aside those which are 
evidently dictated by the spirit of flattery, many are kind- 
hearted, as well as complimentary. The few lines which 
were intended to accompany such trifling offerings of 
friendship as the poet could afford to give, and which, 
doubtless, rendered a flower or a toy doubly acceptable, 
are equal in neatness to many of the Greek Anthology. 
TVlien he sends a rose to ApoUinaris, it is accompanied 
by the following elegant lines : — 

I felix rosa, mollibusque sertis 
Nostri cinge comas Apollinaris ; 
Quas tu nectere Candidas sed olini, 
Sic te semper amet Venus, memento. 2 

Go, happy rose, and with thy delicate garlands wreathe the locks of 
my ApoUinaris ; and remember, so may Venus ever love thee ! to en- 
twine them when grey : but may it be long ere that time comes. 

The fourteenth book contains numerous ingenious 
couplets, sent, together with pencases, dice, tablets, tooth- 
picks, and other little presents, at the Saturnalian festival. 

In so vast a collection of pieces it is natural to expect 
that there would be great inequality, and that some of 
his wit would be commonplace and puerile. That such 
was the case, he himself confesses more than once ; 3 and 
in one place he states that this inequality constitutes one 
of the merits of his work. 4 



1 For example, lib. iii. 48. 2 Lib. vii. 88. 3 Lib. i. 12 ; vii. 30. 

4 Lib, vii. 89. 



480 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

He knew that his works were appreciated, not only at 
Rome, but also throughout the empire : — 

Toto notus in orbe Martialis 
Argutis epigrammaton libellis. 1 

and this consciousness is some excuse for the vanity 
which occasionally shows itself, 2 and which does not hesi- 
tate to account blemishes as beauties. 

The following are favourable specimens of his poetry : — 

Indignas premeret pestis cum tabida fauces, 

Inque ipsos vultus serperet atra lues ; 
Siccis ipse genis flentes hortatus amicos 

Decrevit Stygios Festus adire lacus. 
Nee tamen obscuro pia polluit ora veneno, 

Aut torsit lenta tristia fata fame ; 
Sanctam Romana vitam sed morte peregit, 

Dimisitque animam nobiliore via. 
Hanc mortem fatis magni preeferre Catonis 

Fama potest ; hujus Caesar amicus erat. 

When the dire quinsey choked his noble breath, 

And o'er his face the blackening venom stole, 
Festus disdained to wait a lingering death, 

Cheered his sad friends, and freed his dauntless soul. 
Nor meagre famine's slowly- wasting force, 

Nor hemlock's gradual dullness he endured ; 
But closed his life a truly Roman course, 

And with one blow his liberty secured. 
The Fates gave Cato a less glorious end, 
For Csesar was his foe, Festus was Csesar's friend. 3 

Hodgson. 

Casta suo gladium cum traderet Arria Peeto 

Quern de visceribus traxerat ipsa suis, 
Si qua fides, vulnus, quod feci, non dolet, inquit ; 

Sed quod tu facies, hoc mihi, Psete, dolet. 

When Arria to her Psetus gave the steel, 

Which from her bleeding side did newly part ; 

" From my own stroke," she said, " no pain I feel, 
But, ah ! thy wound will stab me to the heart." 



1 Lib. i. 1. a Lib. x. 100 ; i. 54; iv. 46. 

3 Martial generally condemns suicide ; for instance, " Fortiter ille facit 
qui miser esse potest," and " Hunc volo laudari, qui sine morte potest." 
But, see epigram on death of Otho (Lib. vi. 32). 



SPECIMENS OF HIS TOETRY. 481 

Dura nos blanda teneut jueimdi stagna Lucrini 

Et qua) pumiceis foutibus antra caleut, 
Tu colis Argivi regnum Faustine coloni 

Quo te bis decimus ducit ab urbe lapis. 
Horrida sed fervent Nemerei pectora monstri 

Nee satis est Baias igne calcre suo. 
Ergo sacri fontes et littora sacra valete 

Nympharuin pariter Nereidumque domus ! 
Hereuleos colles gelida vos vincite bruma, 

Nunc Tiburtinis cedite frigoribus. 

While near the Lucrine lake, consumed to death, 

I draw the sultry air and gasp for breath, 

Where streams of sulphur raise a stifling heat, 

And thro' the pores of the warm pumice sweat ; 

You taste the cooling breeze where, nearer home, 

The twentieth pillar marks the mile from Eome. 

And now the Sun to the bright Lion turns, 

And Baia with redoubled fury burns ; 

Then" briny seas and tasteful springs farewell, 

Where fountain Nymphs confused with Naiads dwell. 

In winter you may all the world despise, 

But now 'tis Tivoli that bears the prize. Addison. 



2 i 



482 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER VI. 

AUFIDIUS BASSUS AND CREMUTIUS CORDUS — VELLEIUS PATERCULUS 
— CHARACTER OF HIS WORKS — VALERIUS MAXIMUS — CORNELIUS 
TACITUS — AGE OF TRAJAN — BIOGRAPHY OF TACITUS — HIS EXTANT 
WORKS ENUMERATED — AGRICOLA — GERMANY — HISTORIES — 
TRADITIONS RESPECTING THE JEWS — ANNALS — OBJECT OF TACITUS 
— HIS CHARACTER — HIS STYLE. 

The earliest prose writers belonging to this epoch were 
Aufidius Bassus and Cremutius Cordus. The former 
wrote a history of the German and civil wars, which was 
continued by the elder Pliny ; of the latter only a few 
fragments have been preserved by Seneca. 1 They were 
published in the reign of Tiberius ; and it is evident that 
they contained a history of the civil wars, for his praise 
of Brutus and Cassius was made the pretext for his im- 
peachment. It is also clear that he treated of contem- 
porary events ; for the real cause of the emperor's hostility 
was an attack which he made upon the favourite Sejanus. 
In vain he tendered an apology ; and seeing there was no 
hope of escape he starved himself to death. 2 His histories 
were publicly burned ; but his daughter, to whom Seneca 
addressed his " Consolatio" concealed some copies, and 
afterwards published them, with the approbation of 
Caligula. 3 

M. Yelleius Paterculus. 

Together with these flourished M. Yelleius Paterculus. 
He was a soldier of equestrian family, served his first 



Suasor. vii. 2 a. d. 25 ; Tac. Ann. iv. 34. 3 Suet. Calig. 16. 



HISTORY OF PATERCULUS. 483 

campaign in Asia, and subsequently, after passing through 
the various steps of promotion, acted as legatus to 
Tiberius, in Germany. His services recommended him 
to the favour of the prince, on whose accession he was 
made praetor, and proved himself a staunch supporter of 
him and his favourite minister Sejanus. In the fall of 
that unworthy man, 1 Paterculus was involved, and was 
most probably put to death. 

The short historical work by which he is known as an 
author is a history of Rome, and of the nations connected 
with the foundation of the imperial city, in two books. 
It is dedicated to M. Yinucius, consul ; and as it carries 
on the history to the death of Livia, the mother of 
Tiberius, in the year of his consulate, 2 it must have been 
finished, perhaps almost entirely written within that year. 
Assuming that it was wise to undertake the task of com- 
prising within such narrow Hmits events extending over 
so large a field, it is not unskilfully performed. The most 
striking events are selected and told in a lively and 
interesting manner; but he had one fault fatal to his 
character as an historian, who professed to treat of his 
own times. He is partial, prejudiced, and adulatory. He 
had not courage to be a Thucy elides or a Sallust. The 
perilous nature of the times, the personal obligations 
under which he was to the emperor, made him a courtier, 
and from this one-sided point of view he viewed con- 
temporary history. 

He was, however, a man of lively talents though of 
superficial education : his taste was formed after the 
model of the Augustan writers, especially Sallust, of 
whose style, so far as the outward form, he was an 
imitator. But although he was one of the earliest writers 
of the so-called silver age, his language shows signs of 
degeneracy. It is, at times, overstrained and unnatural j 



'a. D. 31. 8 A.D. 30. 

2 i 2 



484 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

there is the usual affectation of rhetorical effect, and an 
unnecessary use of uncommon words and constructions ; 
still, whenever he keeps his model in view, he is scarcely 
inferior to him in conciseness and perspicuity. The first 
book of his history is in a very imperfect state ; in fact, 
the commencement is entirely lost. Only one manuscript 
of it has been discovered, and even this is now nowhere 
to be found. 

Valerius Maximus. 

Valerius Maximus can scarcely be termed an historian, 
although the subject of which he treated is historical. 
His work is neither one of original research, nor is it a 
connected abridgment of the investigation of his pre- 
decessors. It is a collection of anecdotes, entitled 
Dictorum Faetorumque Memorabilium Libri ix. His 
object is a moral one ; namely, to illustrate by examples, 
the beauty of virtue and the deformity of vice ; but he is 
influenced in the selection less by historical truth than 
by the striking and interesting character of the narrative. 
The arrangement of the anecdotes resembles that of a 
commonplace-book, rather than of a history, the only 
principle observed being, that anecdotes of Romans and 
foreigners are kept distinct from one another. 

Nothing is known, for certain, respecting his personal 
history. He himself states 1 that he accompanied Sextus 
Pompeius into Asia ; and, from a comparison of different 
passages, it is probable that, like Velleius Paterculus, he 
nourished and wrote during the reign of Tiberius. His 
style is prolix and declamatory, and characterized by 
awkward affectation and involved obscurity. 

C. Cornelius Tacitus. 

For the reasons already stated, Eome, for a long period, 
could boast of no historian ; but, under the genial and 

1 Lib. ii. 6, 8. 



AGE OF TRAJAN. 485 

fostering influence of the emperor Trajan, 1 not only the 
fine arts, especially architecture, flourished, but also 
literature revived. The choice of Tserva could not have 
fallen on a better successor to his short reign. He was 
a Spaniard, but his native town was a flourisliing Soman 
colony : the whole country round about it had expe- 
rienced the effects of Koman civilization, and the language 
of all the towns in the south of Spain was Latin. The 
glories of war and the duties of peace divided his 
attention. By the former, he gave employment to his 
vast armies ; by the latter, he refined the tastes and im- 
proved the character of his people. No better testimony 
can be desired than the correspondence between liim and 
Pliny to the mildness and wisdom of his domestic and 
foreign administration. The influence, also, of his 
empress, Plotina, and his sister, Marciana, exercised a 
beneficial influence upon Roman society; for they were 
the first ladies of the imperial court who by their ex- 
ample checked the shameless licentiousness which had 
long prevailed amongst women of the higher classes. 
The same taste and execution which are visible in the 
bas-reliefs on the column of Trajan adorn the literature 
of his age, as illustrated by its two great lights, Tacitus 
and the younger Pliny. There is not the rich, graceful 
ornament which invests with such a charm the writers 
of the golden age ; but the absence of these qualities is 
amply compensated by dignity, gravity, honesty, and 
truthfulness. There is a solidity in the style of Tacitus 
which makes amends for its difficulty, and justifies the 
intense admiration with which he was regarded by Pliny. 
Trutlifulness beams throughout the writings of these 
two great contemporaries ; and incorruptible virtue is as 
visible in the pages of Tacitus as benevolence and tender- 
ness are in the letters of Pliny. They mutually influenced 

1 A. D. 98. 



486 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

each other's characters and principles : their tastes and 
pursuits were similar; they loved each other dearly; 
corresponded regularly, corrected each other's works, and 
accepted patiently and gratefully each other's criticisms. 
If, however, on all occasions, their observations were 
such as appear in the letters of Pliny, it is probable that 
their mutual regard, and the unbounded admiration which 
Pliny entertained for the superior genius of his friend, 
caused them to be rather laudatory than severe. 

The exact date of the birth of Tacitus is not known ; 
but from one of the many letters extant, addressed to 
him by Pliny, 1 it may be inferred that the former was 
not more than one or two years senior to Ms friend. In 
it he reminds him that in years they are almost equals, 
and adds that he himself was a young man when 
Tacitus had already obtained a brilliant reputation. 
There is a tradition which assigns the birth of Tacitus to 
the year of Nero's accession ; but as Pliny the Younger 
was born a.d. 61, and Nero assumed the imperial purple 
a.d. 54, this date would make the difference in age 
between him and Pliny too great to be consistent with 
the expressions of the latter. Tacitus was of equestrian 
rank, and was procurator of Belgic Graul in the reigns 
of Vespasian and Titus, from whom, as well as from 
Domitian, he received many marks of esteem. In a.d. 
78, he married the daughter of C. Julius Agricola. Pie 
was one of the fifteen commissioners appointed for the 
celebration of the Ludi Seculares, a.d. 88, and was also 
praetor the same year. In a.d. 97, he served the office of 
consul. To this magistracy he was elected in order to 
supply the place of Yirginius Burns, who had died 
during his year of office, and over him Tacitus pronounced 
the funeral oration. In a.d. 99, he was associated by 
the Senate with Pliny 2 in the impeachment of Marius 



Pliii. Ep. vii. 20. 2 Plin. Ep. ii. 1. 



EXTANT WORKS OF TACITUS. 487 

Prisons, proconsul of Africa, for maladministration of his 
province; and his friend Pliny praises his reply to the 
acute subtleties of Salvius Liberalis, the advocate of 
Marius, as distinguished, not only for oratorical power, 
but for that which he considers the most remarkable 
quality of his style, gravity. His words are, " Eespondit 
Corn. Tacitus eloquent issime et quod eximie orationi ejus 
inest, ae/muto?" 1 It is not known when Tacitus died, nor 
whether he left any descendants ; but there can be no 
doubt that he survived the accession of Hadrian. 2 

The works of Tacitus which are extant, are : — (1). A 
Life of his father-in-law, Agricola. (2). A tract on the 
Manners and Nations of the Germans. (3). A small 
portion of a voluminous w T ork, entitled Histories. (4). 
About two-thirds of another historical work, entitled, 
Annals. (5). A dialogue on the Decline of Eloquence is 
also ascribed to him; and although doubts have been 
entertained of its genuineness, they do not rest upon any 
strong foundation. It is impossible to do more than 
approximate to the dates at which each work of Tacitus 
was composed. The imminent peril of writing or 
speaking plainly on events or individuals renders it almost 
certain that none of them could have been published 
before the accession of Trajan. Niebuhr 3 entertains no 
doubt that the first edition of the Life of Agricola was 
published towards the end of Domitian's reign, and that, 
subsequently, it was revised and an introduction pre- 
fixed. But is it not more probable, that although the 
work was then written, it was not published until after 
revision ? 

Great as were the moral worth and the amiable gen- 
tleness of Agricola, his courage as a soldier, his skill and 
decision as a general, his prudence and caution as a 
politician, and, therefore, however deserving he may be 



1 Ep. II. xi. 2 a. d. 117. 3 Lect. R. H. cxix. 



488 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

of the pleasing light in which his character is portrayed, 
still the life of Tacitus is a panegyric rather than a 
biography. The near relation in which Tacitus stood to 
him, the affectionate admiration which Agricola must 
necessarily have commanded from one who knew him so 
well, unfitted him for the work of an impartial biographer. 
The fine points of Agricola' s character outshine all its 
other features ; but we cannot suppose that he had no 
defects, no weaknesses. These, however, do not appear 
in the little work of Tacitus. His son-in-law either 
could not or would not see them. Still the brief sketch 
is a beautiful specimen of the vigour and force of 
expression with which this greatest painter of antiquity 
could throw off any portrait which he attempted. Even 
if the likeness be somewhat flattered, the qualities which 
the writer possessed, his insight into character, his 
pathetic power, and his affectionate heart, render this 
short piece one of the most attractive biographies 
extant. 1 

"With what simple pathos does he tell us of the obliga- 
tion which Agricola, like so many other great men, owed 
to the educating care of his pure-minded, prudent, and 
indulgent mother, and the gratitude with which he was 
wont constantly to speak of that obligation ! With what 
affection does he speak of one bound to him, not only by 
the ties of affinity, but by the stronger ties of a congenial 
temper and disposition ! In his reflections on his death, 
there is no affected attempt at dramatic display. The 
few words devoted to so mournful a subject simply 
breathe the overwhelming sense of bereavement, un- 
assuaged by the consolation of being present at his last 
moments. " Happy wert thou, Agricola, not only 
because thy life was glorious, but because thy death was 
well-timed ! All who heard thy last words bear witness 

1 Agric. 4. 



HIS AGRICOLA AND GERMANY. Is89 

to the constancy with which thou didst welcome death 
as though thou wert determined manfully to acquit the 
emperor of being the cause. But the bitterness of thy 
daughter's sorrow and mine for the loss of a parent is 
enhanced by the reflection, that it did not fall to our lot 
to watch over thy declining health, to solace thy failing 
strength, to enjoy thy last looks, thy last embraces. 
Faithfully would we have listened to thy parting words 
and washes, and imprinted them deeply on our memories. 
Tins was our chief sorrow, our most painful wound. 
Owing to our long absence from Eome, thou hadst been 
lost to us four years before. Doubtless, best of parents ! 
enough, and more than enough, of honour was paid to 
thee by the assiduous attention of thy affectionate wife ; 
still the last offices were paid thee amidst too few tears, 
and thine eyes were conscious that some loved object 
was absent just as their light was dimmed for ever." 
To this tribute of dutiful affection, succeed sentiments 
of noble resignation, joined with a humble conviction 
of the transitory nature of human talents, and an earnest 
looking-for of immortality. To us, the biography of 
Agricola is especially interesting, because Britain was the 
scene of liis glory as a military commander, and of his 
success in civil administration. His army first pene- 
trated beyond the Friths of Forth and Clyde into the 
Highlands of Scotland, and his fleet first circumnavigated 
the northern extremities of our island. 

The treatise on the geography, manners, and nations 
of Germany (De Situ Moribus et Populis Germanice) is 
but little longer than the Life of Agricola. The inform- 
ation contained in it is exactly of that character which 
might be expected, considering the sources from which 
it was derived. Tacitus was never hi Germany, and 
therefore his knowledge was collected from those who 
had visited it for the purposes either of war or commerce. 
Hence Iris geographical descriptions are often vague and 



490 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

inaccurate ; a mixture of the marvellous shows that some 
of his narrative consists in mere travellers' tales, whilst 
the salient points and characteristic features of the 
national manners bear the impress of truth, and are sup- 
ported by the well-known habits and institutions of 
Teutonic nations. 

He tells of their bards and explains the etymology of 
the term by the word, Barditum, which signified the 
recitation of their songs. 1 He hints at wild legends and 
dark superstitions with which the German imagination 
still loves to people the dark recesses of their forests. 2 
He describes their pure and unmixed race, and, conse- 
quently, the universal prevalence of the national features — 
blue eyes, red or sandy hair, and stalwart and gigantic 
frames. 3 According to his account, their political con- 
stitutions were elective monarchies, but the monarch was 
always of noble birth and his power limited; 4 and all 
matters of importance were debated by the estate of the 
people. 5 In the solemn permission accorded to a German 
youth to bear arms, and his investiture with lance and 
shield, is seen the origin of knighthood; 6 and in the 
sanctity of the marriage-tie, the chastity of the female sex, 
their social influence, and the respect paid to them — the 
rarity of adultery and its severe punishment, and the 
total absence of polygamy — we recognize the germ of 
the distinguishing characteristics of chivalry. 7 They were 
hospitable and constant to then hereditary friendships, 
but stern in perpetuating family feuds ; 8 passionately fond 
of gambling, and strict in their regard for debts of 
honour ; 9 inveterate drinkers, and their favourite potation 
was beer ; 10 they could not consult on important matters 
without a convivial meeting; 11 if they quarrelled over 
their cups, they had recourse rarely to words, usually to 



1 Cap. iii. 2 Cap. ix., xxxix., xl., xliii. 3 Cap. iv. 

4 Cap. vii. 5 Cap. xi. 6 Cap. xiii. 7 Cap. xviii., xix. 

8 Cap. xxi. 9 Cap. xxiv. 10 Cap. xxiii. n Cap. xxii. 



Ills HISTORIES. 491 

blows. 1 Their slaves were in the condition of serfs or 
villains, and paid to the lord a fixed rent in corn, or 
cattle, or manufactures. 2 They reckoned their time by 
nights instead of da} r s, 3 just as we are accustomed to use 
the expressions se'nnight and fortnight. 

After having sketched the manners and customs of the 
nation as a whole, he proceeds to treat of each tribe 
separately. 4 In speaking of our forefathers, the Angli, 
who inhabited part of the modern territory of Sleswick- 
Holstein, and whose name is still retained in the district 
of Angeln, one word which he uses is an English one. 
The Angli, he says, together with the conterminous 
tribes, worship Herthus, i. e. Terra. 5 Even in these 
early times he mentions the naval superiority of the 
Suiones, who were the ancestors of the Normans and 
Sea-kings. With these he affirms that the continent of 
Europe terminates, and all beyond is a motionless and 
frozen ocean. 6 Truth in these distant climes mingles 
with fable. Dajdight continues after the sun has set, 
but a hissing noise is heard as his blazing orb plunges 
into the sea, and the forms of the gods, and the radiant 
glories which surround their heads, are visible.' The list 
of marvels ends with fabulous beings, whose bodies and 
limbs are those of wild beasts, whilst their heads and 
faces are human. 

The earliest historical work of Tacitus is his " His- 
torice" of which only four books and a portion of the 
fifth are extant. Their contents extend from the second 
consulship of Gralba 8 to the commencement of the siege 
of Jerusalem. The original work concluded with the 
death of Domitian. 9 He purposed also, if his life had been 
spared, to add the reigns of Nerva and Trajan, as the 
employment of his old age. " The materials for which," 



1 Cap. xxii. 2 Cap. xxv. 3 Cap. xi. 4 From cap. xxviii. 

h Cap. xl. ■ Cap. xlv. 7 Cap. xlvi. 8 a. d. 69. 9 a.d. 96. 



492 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

he says, " are more plentiful and trustworthy, because of 
the unusual felicity of an age in which men were allowed 
to think as they pleased, and to give utterance to what 
they thought." 1 It is plain from the word Divus (the 
deified) being prefixed to the name of Nerva, and not to 
that of Trajan, in the passage above quoted, that this 
work was written after Trajan had put on the imperial 
purple. 2 

According to St. Jerome it originally consisted of thirty 
books ; and the minuteness with which each event is re- 
corded in the portion extant renders it highly probable 
that the original work was as extensive as this assertion 
would imply. The object which he proposed to himself 
was worthy of his penetrating mind, from the searching 
gaze of which even the hypocrisy and dissimulation of a 
Tiberius were powerless to veil the foul darkness of his 
crafty nature. He intended " to investigate the political 
state of the commonwealth, the feelings of its armies, the 
sentiments of the provinces, the elements of its strength 
and weakness, the causes and reasons for each historical 
phenomenon . " 3 The principal fault which diminishes the 
value of his history as a record of events, is his too great 
readiness to accept evidence unhesitatingly, and to record 
popular rumours without taking sufficient pains to ex- 
amine into their truth. Still these blots are but few, 
scattered over a vast field of faithful history. Perhaps 
the most lamentable instance is presented in his incorrect 
account of the history, constitution, and manners of the 
Jewish people. Wanting either the opportunity or the 
inclination to consult the sacred books of the nation, he 
mixes up vague traditions of their early history with the 
fables of Pagan mythology; and, like the Greeks and 
Bomans, gives names to imaginary patriarchs, taken from 
localities connected with their history. 



Hist. i. 1. 2 a.d. 117. 3 Hist. i. 4. 



11 rS ACCOUNT OF THE JEWS. 493 

According to his account the Jews originally inhabited 
Crete, 1 and from Mount Ida, in that island, received the 
tiame of Idiei, which afterwards became corrupted into 
Judaei. From Crete, when Saturn was expelled by Jove, 
they took refuge in Egypt ; and thence under two leaders, 
Juda and Hierosolymus, again migrated to the neigh- 
bouring country of Palestine. A second tradition attri- 
butes to them an Assyrian origin ; a third an ^Ethiopian ; 
a fourth asserts that they were descended from the Solymi 
which Homer celebrated in his poems. 2 

The next tradition which he mentions approaches 
nearer to the true one. Egypt being afflicted with a 
plague, the king Bocchoris, by the advice of the oracle of 
Amnion, purged his kingdom of them, and under the 
guidance of Moses they began their wanderings. When 
they were dying on their way for want of water, their 
leader followed a herd of wild asses, by which he was led 
to a copious well of water. Thus was their drought 
relieved; and, after journeying six days, they obtained 
possession of the land in which they built their capital 
and temple. Moses introduced new religious rites con- 
trary to those of other nations. He set up the image of 
an ass in the Holy of Holies — a statement which after- 
wards Tacitus virtually contradicts by saying that they 
allow no images in their temples, 3 that they preferred 
taking up arms to admitting the statue of Caligula into 
the temple ; 4 and that when Pompey took Jerusalem, 5 he 
found no image of any deity and the sanctuary empty. 
He adds, that they sacrifice rams in order to show con- 
tempt to Jupiter Amnion, and oxen, because, under that 
form, Apis was worshipped by the Egyptians ; that they 
abstain from pork in remembrance of their having been 
afflicted with leprosy, to which that animal is subject, and 



Hist. v. 2. 2 Ibid. iii. 3 Ibid. v. 4 Ibid. ix. 

5 b. c. 62. 



494 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

eat unleavened bread as a memorial of their once having 
stolen food. On the seventh day, which terminated their 
wanderings, they do no work, and, in like manner, the 
seventh year they devote to idleness. This sabbath, 
some assert that they keep holy in honour of Saturn. 
They believe in the immortality of the soul, and in 
future rewards and punishments, and embalm their dead 
like the Egyptians. Such are the various traditions 
respecting the Jews which Tacitus incorporates in his 
Histories. 

The Annals, which were written subsequently to the 
Histories, were so called, because each historical event is 
recorded in historical order under the year to which it 
belongs. 1 They consist of sixteen books; commence with 
the death of Augustus, 2 and conclude with that of Nero. 3 
The only portions extant are — the first four books, part 
of the fifth, the sixth, part of the eleventh, the twelfth, 
thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and the commencement 
of the sixteenth book. The Annals are rather histories 
of each successive emperor than of the Roman people; 
but this is the necessary condition of narrating the 
fortunes of a nation which now possessed only the bare 
name, and not the reality of constitutional government. 
The state was now the emperor ; the end and object of 
the social system his security ; and every political event 
must therefore be treated in relation to him. 

But a history of this kind in the hands of one who 
had such skill in diving into the recesses of man's heart, 
who could read so shrewdly and delineate so vigorously 
human character, who possessed as a writer such pic- 
turesque and dramatic power, becomes the more interest- 
ing from its biographical nature, and its philosophical 
importance as a moral rather than a political study. 
It is not, owing to circumstances over which the author 



Ann. iv. 71. 2 a.d. 14 3 a. d. 68. 



OBJECT OF TACITUS. 495 

had no control, the history of a great nation, for the 
Romans, as a whole, were no longer great. Neither does 
it paint the rise, progress, and development of consti- 
tutional freedom, for it had reached its zenith, had de- 
clined, become paralysed, and finally extinct. But still 
there existed bright examples of heroism, and courage, 
and self-devotion, truly Eoman, and instances not less 
prominent of corruption and degradation. Individuals 
stand out in bold relief, eminent for the noblest virtues 
or blackened by the basest crimes. These appear either 
singly or in groups upon the stage : the emperor forms 
the principal figure ; and the moral sense of the reader 
is awakened to admire instances of patient suffering and 
determined bravery, or abject slavery and remorseless 
despotism. 

The object of Tacitus, therefore, was not, like that of 
the great philosophical historian of Greece, to describe 
the growth of political institutions, or the implacable 
animosities which raged between opposite political prin- 
ciples — the struggles for supremacy between a class and a 
whole people — but the influence which the establishment 
of tyranny on the ruins of liberty exercised for good or 
for evil in bringing out the character of the individual. 
Rome, the imperial city, was the all-engrossing subject of 
his predecessors ; Romans were but subordinate and ac- 
cessary. Tacitus delineated the lives and deaths of in- 
dividuals, and showed the relation which they bore to 
the fortunes of their country. 

It would have been impossible to have satisfied a 
people whose taste had become more than ever rhetorical, 
without the introduction of orations. Those of Tacitus 
are perfect specimens of art ; and probably, with the ex- 
ception of Gralgacus, 1 far more true than those of other 
Roman historians. Still lie made use of them, not only 



1 Life of Agricola. 



496 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

to embody traditional accounts of what had really been 
said on each occasion, but to illustrate his own views of 
the character of the speaker, and to convey his own poli- 
tical opinions. 

Full of sagacious observation and descriptive power, 
Tacitus engages the most serious attention of the reader 
by the gravity of his condensed and comprehensive style, 
as he does by the wisdom and dignity of his reflections. 
The purity and gravity of his sentiments remind the 
reader even of Christian authors. 

Living amidst the influences of a corrupt age he was 
uncontaminated ; and by his virtue and integrity, his 
chastened political liberality, commands our admiration as 
a man, whilst his love of truth is reflected in his character 
as an historian. Although he imitated, as well as approved, 
the cautious policy of his father-in-law, he was not desti- 
tute of moral firmness. 

It derogates nothing from his courage that he was 
silent during the perilous times in which great part of his 
life was past, and spoke with boldness only when the 
happy reign of Nerva had commenced, and the broken 
spirit of the nation had revived. Like the rest of his 
fellow-countrymen he exhibited a remarkable example of 
patient endurance, when the imperial jealousy made even 
the praise of those who were obnoxious to the tyrant trea- 
son ; when it was considered a capital crime for Arulenus 
Eusticus to praise Psetus Thrasea, and Herennius Senecio 
to eulogise Priscus Helvidius. 

In those fearful times he himself says, that " as old 
Rome had witnessed the greatest glories of liberty, so her 
descendants had been cast down to the lowest depths of 
slavery; and would have been deprived of the use of 
memory, as well as of language, if it were equally in man's 
power to forget as to be silent." 1 In such times prudence 



1 Vit. Agric. ii. 



STYLE OF TACITUS. 497 

was a duty, and daring courage would have been un- 
availing rashness. In his praise of Agricola, and his 
blame of Partus, he enunciates the principles which regu- 
lated his own conduct — that to endanger yourself without 
the slightest prospect of benefiting your country is mere 
ostentatious ambition. "Sciant," he writes, "quibus 
moris illicita mirari, posse etiam sub malis principibus 
magnos viros esse ; obsequiumque ac modestiam, si in- 
dustria ac vigor adsint, eo laudis excedere, quo plerique 
per abrupta, sed in nullum reipublicae usum ambitiosa 
morte inclaruerunt . " x Again, ' ' Thrasea Pa3tus sibi causam 
periculi fecit, cseteris libertatis initium non prsebuit." 2 

In the style of Tacitus the form is always subordinate 
to the matter : the ideas maintain their due supremacy 
over the language in which they are conveyed. There is 
none of that striving after epigrammatic terseness which 
savours of affectation. His brevity, like that which 
characterises the style of Thucydides, is the necessary con- 
densation of a writer whose thoughts flow more quickly 
than his pen can express them. Hence his sentences are 
suggestive of far more than they express : they are enig- 
matical hints of deep and hidden meaning, which keep 
the mind active and the attention alive, and delight the 
reader with the pleasures of discovery and the conscious- 
ness of difficulties overcome. Nor is this natural and 
unintentional brevity unsuitable to the cautious reserve 
with w^hich all were tutored to speak and think of political 
subjects in perilous times. It is extraordinary how often 
a similarity between his mind and that of Thucydides in- 
advertently discovers itself — not only in his mode of 
thinking, but also in his language, even in his gram- 
matical constructions, especially in his frequent substitu- 
tion of attraction for government, in instances of con- 
densed construction, and in the connexion of clauses 



1 Agric. 42. z Ann. xiv. 12. 

2 K 



498 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

grammatically different, although, they are metaphysically 
the same. 

Nor is his brevity dry or harsh — it is enlivened by co- 
piousness, variety, and poetry. He scarcely ever repeats 
the same idea in the same form. No author is richer in 
synonymous words, or arranges with more varied skill 
the position of words in a sentence. As for poetic 
genius, his language is highly figurative ; no prose writer 
deals more largely in prosopopoeia : his descriptions of 
scenery and incidents are eminently picturesque; his 
characters dramatic; the expression of his own senti- 
ments and feelings as subjective as lyric poetry. 



( 499 ) 



CHAPTER VII. 

C. SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS — HIS BIOGRAPHY — SOURCES OF HIS 

HISTORY HIS GREAT FAULT — Q. CURTIUS RUFUS — TIME WHEN 

HE FLOURISHED DOUBTFUL — HIS BIOGRAPHY OF ALEXANDER — 
EPITOMES OF L. ANN^US FLORUS— SOURCES WHENCE HE DERIVED 
THEM. 

C. Suetonius Tranquillus. 

C. Suetonius Tranquillus 1 was trie son of Suetonius 
Lenis, who served as tribunus angusticlavus of the 
thirteenth legion at the battle of Bedriacum, in which 
the Emperor Otho was defeated by Vitellius. The time of 
his birth is uncertain ; but from a passage at the end of 
his Life of Nero 2 it may be inferred that he was born very 
soon after the death of that emperor, which took place a.d. 
68 ; for in it he mentions that, when twenty years sub- 
sequent to Nero's death, a false Nero appeared, he was 
just arriving at manhood (adolescens) . The knowledge of 
language and rhetorical taste displayed in the remains of 
his works on these subjects prove that he was well in- 
structed in these branches of a Roman liberal education ; 
and a letter of the younger Pliny, 3 whose intimate friend 
he was, speaks of him as an advocate by profession. 
This letter represents him as unwilling to plead a cause, 
which he had undertaken, because he was frightened 

, ' See A. Krause de Font, et Auctor. Suet. 2 Cap. 57. 

3 Ep. I. 18. 

2 K 2 



500 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

by a dream. It is probable that this anecdote is an 
authentic one, because so many examples occur in his 
memoirs of his superstitious belief in dreams, omens, 
ghosts, and prodigies. 1 

The affectionate regard which Pliny entertained for his 
friend was very great, and led him to form too high an 
estimate of his talents as a writer and an historian. On 
one occasion he used his influence at court to procure for 
him a tribuneship ; which, however, he did not accept. 2 
On another he obtained for him, from Trajan, 3 the "jus 
trium liberorurn" although he had no children. But this 
privilege, as in the case of Martial, was sometimes granted 
under similar circumstances. In this letter, which he 
wrote to the Emperor, he speaks of Suetonius as a man of 
the greatest probity, integrity, and learning ; and adds, 
that, after the experience of a long acquaintance, the 
more he knows of him the more he loves him. 

Subsequently Suetonius became private secretary 
(M agister Epistolarum) to Hadrian, 4 but was deprived of 
the situation. Owing to the only sources of information 
respecting Suetonius being his own works, and the few 
scattered notices in the letters of Plinius Secundus, 
nothing more is known respecting his life. 

A catalogue of his numerous writings is given by 
Suidas ; 5 but, with the exception of the Lives of the 
twelve Caesars, it does not contain his chief extant works. 
These are notices of illustrious grammarians and rheto- 
ricians, and the lives of the poets Terence, Horace, 
Persius, Lucan, and Juvenal. 

Niebuhr 6 believed that the history, or rather the 
biography, of the Caesars was written when Suetonius was 
still young, before he was secretary to Hadrian, and 
previous to the publication of the Histories of Tacitus. 

1 See e. g. Cses. 81 ; Aug. 6. 94 ; Tib. 14, 74 ; Calig. 5, 57, &c. 
8 See Ep. III. 8. 3 Ep. X. 95. 4 Spart. L. of Had. c. ii. 

5 S. v. TpdyicvWos. 6 Lect. E. H. cxvi. note. 



SOURCES OF SUETONIUS. 501 

If so, lie neither enjoyed the opportunities of consulting 
the imperial records which his situation at court would 
have given him, nor of profiting by the accurate guidance 
and profound reflection of Tacitus. Krause, 1 on the 
other hand, adduces many parallelisms between the lan- 
guage of Tacitus and Suetonius ; and as Tacitus did not 
publish his earliest historical work before a.d. 117, 2 
assumes that Suetonius did not write his biographies 
until after the accession of Hadrian. 

It is very difficult to determine which of these theories 
is the correct one ; but there can be no doubt that the 
sources from which he derived his information are quite 
independent of the authority of Tacitus ; and that the 
Lives of the Twelve Csesars would have contained all that 
we find in them, even if the Annals and Histories had 
never been written. He does not only trust to the works 
of the Eoman historians, but his exact quotations from 
acts of the senate and people, edicts, fasti, and orations, 
and the use which he makes of annals and inscriptions 
prove that he was a man of diligent research, and that he 
examined original documents for himself. 

Again, as a writer of biographical memoirs rather than 
of regular history, and fond of anecdote and scandal, he 
availed himself largely of such private letters of the 
Emperors and their dependants as fell in his way, of 
testamentary documents, and of the information he could 
collect in conversation. Many of the lives which he 
wrote were those of his contemporaries. Some of the 
events recorded were passing under the eyes of the 
public, and were matters of notoriety. He himself asserts 
in three several places 3 that he received some of the 
accounts which he gives from the testimony of eye- 
witnesses. The more secret habits of the Emperors, 



De Suet. Fontibus. Berl. 1831. 2 Ann ii. 61. 

3 Cal. 19 ; Nero, 29 ; Tit. 3. 



502 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

either truly told or exaggerated by an appetite for 
scandal, would ooze out. Anecdotes of the reigning 
Emperor's private life would be eagerly sought for, and 
be the favourite topic of gossip in all circles of Roman 
society. Nor would he have any difficulty in procuring 
copious stores of information respecting those Emperors 
who reigned before he was born from those of his con- 
temporaries who were a generation older than himself, 
and who were spectators of, or actors in, many of the 
scenes which he describes. As a biographer, there is no 
reason to doubt his honesty and veracity ; he is indus- 
trious and careful; he indulges neither in ornament of 
style nor in romantic exaggeration ; the picture which he 
draws is a terrible one, but it is fully supported by the 
contemporary authority of Juvenal and Tacitus. Never- 
theless, his mind was not of that comprehensive and 
philosophical character which would qualify him for 
taking an enlarged view of political affairs, or for the 
work of an historian. He has no definite plan formed in 
his mind, without which an historian can never hope to 
make his work a complete whole; he wanders at will 
from one subject to another, just as the idea seizes him, 
and is by no means careful of committing offences against 
chronological order. 

Niebuhr accuses him of inconsistency in the character 
which he draws and the praise which he bestows on 
Vespasian ; l but adds what may, in some sort, be con- 
sidered a defence, namely, that Vespasian was, negatively 
speaking, a good, upright, and just man, and that the 
dark side of his character must be considered in reference 
to the fearful times in which he reigned. He also 
mentions, as an example of his deficiencies as an historian, 
the bad accounts which he has left of his own times, 
especially of the anarchy which followed Nero's death, 



1 Lib. cxvi. 



QUINTUS CURTiUS RU1US. 503 

and the commencement of the reign of Vespasian. But 
in his praise it may be said that Suetonius has formed a 
just estimate of his own powers in undertaking to be a 
biographer and not an historian ; and it is scarcely fair 
to criticise severely his unfitness for a task to which he 
made no pretensions. 

One great fault pollutes his pages. The dark pictures 
which he draws of the most profligate Emperors, the 
disgusting annals of their unheard-of crimes, are dwelt 
upon as though he took pleasure in the description, and 
loved to wallow in the mire of the foulest debauchery. 
Truth, perhaps, required that they should not have been 
passed over in silence, but they might have been lightly 
touched, and not painted in detail with revolting faith- 
fulness. He is often brief, sometimes obscure : in such 
passages of his narrative we would have gladly welcomed 
both brevity and obscurity. 

Q. Curtius Eueus. 

The doubts which have always been entertained re- 
specting the time when the biographer of Alexander the 
Great nourished, and which no investigations have been 
sufficient to dissipate, render it impossible to pass him 
by unnoticed, although he may, perhaps, belong to an 
age beyond the chronological limits of this work. The 
purity of his style has, in the opinion of some critics, 
entitled him to a place among the writers of the silver 
age ; whilst Niebuhr, judging by the internal evidence, 
thinks that he must have lived as late as the reign of 
Caracalla or Septimius Severus. 

No valid argument, however, can be based upon his 
style, because it is evidently artificial : it is, indeed, 
infected with, a love of declamatory ornament; it is 
sometimes more like poetry than prose ; it abounds in 
metaphors, and therefore proves that he lived in a 



504 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

rhetorical age; but it is upon the whole an imitation 
of the Latinity of Livy. This rhetorical character of his 
style gives some value to the opinion of F. A. Wolf, that 
he was the Q. Curtius Eufus mentioned by Suetonius in 
his treatise on Illustrious Orators. If so, he was probably 
a contemporary. 

With respect to internal evidence, reference has been 
made to two passages as containing allusions to his 
times. (1). Multis ergo casibus defuncta (sc. Tyrus), 
nunc tamen longa pace cuncta refovente, sub tutela 
Eomanse mansuetudinis acquiescit. 1 (2). Proinde jure 
meritoque P. E. salutem se principi suo debere pro- 
fitetur, qui noctis, quam psene supremam habuimus, 
novum sidus illuxit, hujus hercule, non solis ortus, lucem 
caliganti reddidit mundo, cum sine suo capite discordia 
membra trepidarent. 2 The former has been considered 
descriptive of many periods in Eoman history : although 
Niebuhr 3 makes the unqualified assertion, that it has no 
meaning, unless it alludes to the times of Septimius 
Severus and Caracalla. The latter is equally vague : 
Niebuhr thinks it might refer to Aurelian ; Gibbon con- 
siders that it alluded to Gordian. But to how many 
Emperors might a spirit of eulogistic flattery make it 
applicable ! Upon the whole, it is most probable that 
he lived towards the close of the first century. 

The biography of Alexander is deeply interesting ; for, 
although Curtius evidently disdains historic reality, his hero 
always seems to have a living existence : it is a romance 
rather than a history. He never loses an opportunity 
by the colouring which he gives to historical facts of 
elevating the Macedonian conqueror to a superhuman 
standard. He has no inclination to weigh the merits of 
conflicting historical testimonies : he selects that which 
supports his partial predilections; nor are his talents 



Book iv. 20. * Book x. 9. 3 Lect. R. H. cxxviii. 



LUCIUS ANNyEUS FLORUS. 505 

for story-telling checked by a profound knowledge of 
either tactics or geography, or other objective historical 
materials, for correct details in which he is too frequently 
negligent. 1 His florid and ornamented style is suitable 
to the imaginary orations which are introduced in the 
narrative, and which constitute the most striking por- 
tions of the work. The sources from which he derived 
his information are various, the principal one being the 
account of Alexander's exploits by the Greek historian 
Clitarchus, who accompanied the Macedonian conqueror 
in his Asiatic expedition. He is, however, by no means 
a servile follower; for in one instance he does not 
hesitate to accuse him of inaccuracy. They were, how- 
ever, kindred spirits : both would sacrifice truth to 
romantic interest ; both indulged in the same tale-telling 
tendency. His work originally consisted of ten books. 
Two of these are lost, and their places have been supplied, 
in a very inferior manner, by Cellarius and Freinsheim. 
Even in the eight books which are extant, an hiatus of 
more or less extent occasionally occurs. 

L. Ann^us Florus. 

Brief as the epitomes are which bear the name of L. 
Annseus Florus, the style is characterised by the rhetorical 
spirit of the age to which they belong. They are diffuse 
and declamatory, and their author is rather the panegyrist 
of his countrymen than the grave and sober narrator of 
the most important events contained in their history. 
This short summary, entitled "Rerum Romanarum Libri 
iv., " or " Epitome de Gestis Romanorum" is a well- 
arranged compilation from the authorities extant ; but it 
is probable that, like all other Eoman historians except 
Velleius Paterculus, he derived his materials principally 
from Livy. Such a dry skeleton of history, however, 

1 See Bernharcly, Grundriss, 550. 



506 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

must be uninteresting. Who the author was is by no 
means certain. Some have supposed him to be the same 
with Annseus Florus, who wrote three trochaic verses to 
Hadrian. Titze * imagines that it is the work of two 
authors, one a contemporary of Horace, 2 the other be- 
longing to a later literary period. 

It is generally assumed that the author 3 of the 
Epitomes was either a Spaniard or a Gaul ; and, if we 
may consider the introduction to the work as genuine, he 
lived in the reign of Trajan. 



1 AnthoL Lat. ii. 97, Buriii. or 212 Meyer. Titze ed. Flor. Prag. 1819. 
2 Ep. i. 3 ; ii. 2. 3 Matth. 284. 



( 507 ) 



CHAPTER VIII. 

M. AmffiUS SENECA — HIS CONTROVERSY AND SUASORI^E — 
L. AXNJEUS SENECA — TUTOR TO NERO — HIS ENORMOUS FORTUNE 
HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER — INCONSISTENCIES IN HIS PHILO- 
SOPHY — A FAVOURITE WITH EARLY CHRISTIAN WRITERS — HIS 
EPISTLES — WORK ON NATURAL PHENOMENA — APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 
— HIS STYLE. 

M. Ann^us Seneca. 

The family of the Senecas exercised a remarkable in- 
fluence over literature ; they may, in fact, be said to 
have given the tone to the taste of their age. 

M. Annseus Seneca was born at Corduba (Cordova). 
The precise date of his birth is unknown ; but Clinton 
places it about B.C. 61. This is not improbable, for he 
asserts 1 that he had heard all the eminent orators except 
Cicero, and that he might have enjoyed that privilege 
also if the civil wars had not compelled him to remain in 
Ins native country. After this hindrance was removed 
by the accession of Augustus he came to Rome, and, as 
a professional rhetorician, amassed a considerable fortune. 
Subsequently he returned to Cordova, and married Helvia, 
by whom he had three sons, of whom L. Annseus Seneca, 
the philosopher, was the eldest. 

He left behind him two works, the composition of 
which was the employment of his old age. They are 
the results of his long and successful experience as a 



Proef. ad Controv. i. 67. 



508 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

teacher of rhetoric, the gleanings of his commonplace- 
book, the stores accunmlated by his astonishing memory, 
which enabled him to repeat two thousand unconnected 
words after once hearing them, and to report literally 
any orations which he had heard delivered. They are 
valuable as showing how a hollow and artificial system, 
based upon the recollection of stock-passages and common- 
places, had supplanted the natural promptings of true 
eloquence. They explain the principles and practice of 
instruction in the popular schools of rhetoric, the means 
by which the absence of natural endowments could be 
compensated. They exhibit wit, learning, ingenuity, and 
taste to select and admire the best literary specimens of 
earlier periods ; but it is plain that matter was now 
subordinate to form — that the orator was content to 
borrow the phraseology of his predecessors in which to 
clothe sentiments which he could neither feel nor under- 
stand. The ear still yearned for the language of sincerity, 
although the heart no longer throbbed with the ardour 
of patriotism. It is this want of conformity of ideas to 
words which causes the coldness of a declamatory and 
florid style. It is a mere representation of warmth ; it 
disappoints like a mere painted fire. 

The first work of M. Seneca was entitled Controversice : 
it was divided into ten books, of which, with the excep- 
tion of fragments, only the first, second, seventh, eighth, 
and tenth are extant. It contains a series of exercises or 
declamations in judicial oratory on fictitious cases. The 
imaginary causes were probably sketched out by the 
professor. The students composed their speeches accord- 
ing to the rules of rhetoric : they were then corrected, 
committed to memory, and recited, partly with a view to 
practice, partly in order to amuse an admiring audience. 
The cases are frequently as puerile as a schoolboy's theme, 
sometimes extravagant and absurd. 

His other work, the Suasorice, contains exercises in 



PUBLIC RECITATIONS. 509 

deliberative oratory. The subjects of them are taken 
from the historians and poets : they are as harmless as 
tyranny could desire : there is no danger that languid 
patriotism should revive, or the empire be menaced, by 
such uninteresting discussions. Nor were they confined 
to mere students. Public recitations had, since the days 
of Juvenal, been one of the crying nuisances of the times. 
The poets began it, the rhetoricians followed, and the 
most absurd trash was listened to with patience, being 
ushered into popular notice by partial flatterers or hired 
claqueurs. 

L. Annjeus Seneca. 

L. Seneca was born at his father's native town about 
the commencement of the Christian era. He was brought 
to Rome when very young, and there studied rhetoric 
and philosophy. He soon displayed great talents as a 
pleader ; and by his success is said to have provoked the 
jealousy of Caligula. In the reign of Claudius he was 
accused by the infamous Messalina of improper intimacy 
with Julia, the emperor's niece, and was accordingly 
banished to Corsica. 1 He solaced his exile with the study 
of the Stoic philosophy ; and although its severe precepts 
exercised no moral influence over his conduct, he not 
only professed himself a Stoic, but sincerely imagined 
that he was one. Eight years afterwards Agrippina 
•caused his recall, 2 in order to make him tutor to her son 
Nero. 

His pupil was naturally vicious ; and Seneca, though 
wise and prudent, was too unscrupulous a man of the 
world to attempt the correction of his propensities, or to 
instil into him high principles. After the accession of 
Nero, 3 Seneca endeavoured to arrest his depraved career ; 
but it was too late : all he could do was to put into his 



1 a.d. 41. 2 Tac. Ann. xii. 8. 8 Ibid. xiii. 2. 



510 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

mouth specious words of clemency and mercy. He saw 
how dangerous was the unprincipled ambition of Agrip- 
pina; and dreadful though it was to sanction parricide, 
there was scarcely any other course to be pursued, except 
the consenting to her death. When the deed was done, 
he had the pitiful meanness to screen the murderer by a 
falsehood. He wrote a letter, which Nero sent to the 
senate, accusing his mother of treason, and asserting that 
she had committed suicide. 1 

Seneca had, by usury and legacy -hunting, amassed one 
of those enormous fortunes, of which so many instances 
are met with in Eoman history. This had already ex- 
posed him to envy, 2 and caused his temporary banish- 
ment to the Balearic isles. 3 But after that Burrus was 
dead, who shared his influence over the Emperor, he felt 
the dangers of wealth, and offered his property to Nero. 4 
The Emperor refused ; but Seneca retired from public life. 
Being now under the influence of new favourites, Nero 
wished to rid himself of Seneca ; and although there was 
no evidence of his being privy to the conspiracy of Piso, 
it furnished a pretext for his destruction. 5 In adversity 
his character shone with brighter lustre. Though he 
had lived ill, he could die well. His firmness was the 
result, not of Stoical indifference, but of Eoman courage. 
He met the messengers of death without trembling. His 
noble wife Paullina determined to die with hrm. The 
veins of both were opened at the same time. The little ' 
blood which remained in his emaciated and enfeebled 
frame refused to flow : he suffered excruciating agony : a 
warm bath was applied, but in vain ; and a draught of 
poison was equally ineffectual. At last he was suffocated 
by the vapour of a stove, and expired. 6 

Seneca lived in a perilous atmosphere. The philosophy 



1 Quint, viii. 5, 18. 2 Ibid. xiii. 42. 3 a. r>. 58. 

4 Quint, xiv. 53. 5 Ibid. xv. 60. 6 Ad. 65. 



CII A R ACTEB Of B I'.N EC \ . 511 

in which he believed was hollow, and, being unsnited to 
his court life, 1 he thought it expedient to allow himself 
some relaxation from its severity. His rhetorical taste 
led him to overstate even his own real convictions ; and 
hence the incongruity of his life appeared more glaring. 
He was not insincere j but he had not firmness to act up 
to the high moral standard which he proposed to himself. 
In his letters, and Iris treatise " De Consolatione" addressed 
to Polybius, he even convicts himself of this defect. He 
had difficult questions to decide, and had not sufficient 
moral principle to lead him in the right course. He was 
avaricious ; but it was the great sin of his times. Tacitus 
is not blind to his weaknesses ; 2 but he estimates his 
character with more candour and fairness than Dio. 3 He 
is neither a panegyrist nor an accuser. The education 
of one who was a brute rather than a man was a task to 
the discharge of which no one would have been equal. 
He, therefore, retained the influence which he had not 
uprightness to command by miserable and sinful expe- 
dients. He had great abilities, and some of the noble 
qualities of the old Eomans. Had he lived in the days 
of the Eepublic he would have been a great man. 

Seneca was the author of twelve ethical treatises, the 
best of which are entitled " De Providential " De Con- 
stantid Sapientis" and " De Consolatione." The latter 
was addressed to his mother Helvia, and written during 
his exile in Corsica. In the treatise on Providence he 
discusses the question why, since there is a Divine Pro- 
vidence, good men are liable to misfortunes. Although 
the difficulty is explained by the doctrine that the remedy, 
u suicide" is always in man's power, it asserts the omni- 
presence of the Deity, and the existence of a moral 
Governor of the universe. 

Great as are the inconsistencies in his ethical philo- 



1 Ep. 108. 2 Ann. xiii. ; xiv. 2. 3 Lib. Ixi, J<>. 



512 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

sophy (nor could it be otherwise, as his life was always 
doing despite to his moral sense of right and wrong), his 
views are generally clear and practical. In this he was 
a true Eoman ; he cared little for abstract speculation ; 
he did not value, except as subordinate aids, either mental 
or natural philosophy. He delighted to inculcate pre* 
cepts rather than investigate principles. It is for this 
reason that his works are not satisfactory as a whole, 
whilst they furnish a rich mine for quotations. The 
fault which pervades all Eoman philosophy exists in an 
exaggerated form in his works : they are ethical digests 
of didactic precepts ; but there is no system, no develop- 
ment of new truths. His studies taught him that general 
principles are the foundations of morals, and that casu- 
istry is the application of those principles i 1 but the 
Eomans were naturally inclined to be casuists rather 
than moralists ; and in this preference Seneca went be- 
yond all his countrymen. He writes like a teacher of 
youth rather than as a philosopher ; he inculcates, with- 
out proof, maxims and instructions, and impresses them 
by repetition, as though they recommended themselves 
by their intrinsic truthfulness to the consciences of his 
hearers. 

Seneca was always a favourite with Christian writers : 
he is in fact a better guide to others than he was to him- 
self. Some of his sentiments are truly Christian \ there 
is even a tradition that he was acquainted with St. Paul, 
and fourteen letters to that apostle have been, though 
without grounds, attributed to him. He may, however, 
unconsciously have imbibed some of the principles of 
Christianity. The gospel had already made great and 
rapid strides over the civilized world, and thoughtful minds 
may have been enlightened by some of the rays of divine 
truth dispersed through the moral atmosphere, just as we 



1 Ep. 94, 95. 



WORKS 01 SENECA. 518 

are benefited by the light of the sun, even when its disc 
is obscured by clouds. 

His Epistles, of which there are one hundred and twenty- 
four, are moral essays in an epistolary form, and are the 
most delightful of his works. Although addressed to a 
disciple named Lucilius, they are evidently written for 
the public eye : they are rich in varied thought, and the 
reflections flow naturally and without effort. Letters were 
perhaps the most appropriate vehicle for his preceptive 
philosophy, because such a desultory style is best adapted 
to convey isolated and unconnected maxims. They con- 
tain a free and unconstrained picture of his mind. We 
see in them how he despised verbal subtleties, 1 the ex- 
ternal badges of a sect or creed, and insisted that the 
great end of science is to learn how to live and how to 
die. 

In his old age he wrote seven books on questions con- 
nected with natural phenomena ( Qucestionum Naturalium 
Libri vn.). Why he did so it is impossible to say, since 
he had so often argued against the utility of physical 
studies. 2 The declamatory praise which he bestows upon 
them in this work would lead us to suppose that it was a 
mere exercise for amusement and relaxation. But in this 
case he is not so inconsistent as might be supposed — he 
treats the subject like a moralist, and makes it the occasion 
of ethical reflections. 3 

Once he indulged in the playfulness of satire. He had 
written a fulsome funeral oration on Claudius, which 
Nero delivered in the midst of laughter and derision ; but 
for this abject flattery he afterwards made compensation by 
composing, as a parody on the apotheosis of the stupid 
Emperor, the Apocolocyntosis, or his metamorphosis into a 
pumpkin. The pun was good enough but the execution 
miserable. 

1 Ep. 45. a See ex. f/r. Ep. 88, 106. 

:i See L. vii. c. 30. 

•) T 



514 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

In the style of Seneca we see the result of that false 
declamatory taste of which the works of his father furnish 
specimens. Thought was subordinate to expression. 
The masters of rhetoric were all in all. His style is too 
elaborate to please ; it is generally affected, often florid 
and bombastic : he seems always striving to produce 
striking effects, either by antithesis or ornament ; of course 
he defeats his object, for there is no light and shade. 
There is too much sparkle and glitter, too little repose 
and simplicity. 



( 515 ) 



CHAPTER IX. 

PLINY THE ELDER — HIS HABITS DESCRIBED BY HIS NEPHEW — HIS 
INDUSTRY AND APPLICATION — HLS DEATH IN THE ERUPTION OF 
VESUVIUS — THE ERUPTION DESCRIBED IN TWO LETTERS OF PLINY 
THE YOUNGER — THE NATURAL HISTORY OF PLINY — ITS SUBJECTS 
DESCRIBED — PLINY THE YOUNGER — HIS AFFECTION FOR HIS 
GUARDIAN — HIS PANEGYRIC, LETTERS, AND DESPATCHES— THAT 
CONCERNING THE CHRISTIANS — THE ANSWER. 

C. Plinius Secundus. 

Pliny the Elder was horn a.d. 23, either at Verona 1 or 
Novo-Comum 2 (Como). As he possessed estates at the 
latter town, and his nephew, the younger Pliny, whom 
he adopted, was undoubtedly horn there, it was most pro- 
bably the family residence and the place of the elder 
Pliny's nativity. He was educated at Rome ; and serving 
Claudius in Germany, employed the opportunities which 
this campaign afforded lrim in travelling. Afterwards he 
returned to Eome and practised at the bar ; filled different 
civil .offices, amongst them that of augur, and was sub- 
sequently appointed procurator in Spain. 3 

Some interesting particulars respecting his life and 
habits are contained in a letter of the younger Pliny to 
his friend Macer, 4 illustrative of his studies, his temper, 
his thirst for knowledge, and his strict economy of time. 
The letter is also valuable for another reason — namely, as 
giving a catalogue of all the writings of his uncle. " It 



Anon. Life. 2 Suet. Vit. ; Hieron. Eus. Chron. 

3 Matth. H. of L. s. v. 4 Ep. iii. 5. 

2 l 2 



516 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

is a great satisfaction to me," he writes, " that you so 
constantly and diligently read my uncle's works, that you 
wish to possess them all, and ask me for a list of them. 
I will therefore perform the duty of an index ; and will 
also tell you the order in which they were written." He 
then subjoins the following titles: — (1.) The Art of 
Using the Javelin on Horseback ; composed when he 
was commander of cavalry in Germany. (2.) The Life of 
his friend Pomponius Secundus. (3.) A History of all 
the Wars, twenty in number, which the Romans had 
carried on with the Germans. This was commenced 
during his German campaign, in obedience to the sugges- 
tions of a dream : — " There appeared to him whilst sleep- 
ing the shade of Drusus ; commended his memory to his 
care, and besought him to rescue it from undeserved 
oblivion." In accordance with his superstitious and cre- 
dulous temper, he obeyed the call of his supernatural visi- 
tant. (4.) A treatise on Eloquence, entitled " Studiosus," 
in three books, but subdivided, on account of its length, 
into six volumes. In it he traces the education of an 
orator from the very cradle. (5.) Eight books on Gram- 
matical Ambiguity, which he wrote during the reign of 
Nero, a period when imperial tyranny rendered studies of 
a freer kind too perilous. (6.) Thirty books in continua- 
tion of the History of Aufidius Bassus, dedicated to the 
Emperor Titus. 1 (7.) Thirty-seven books on Natural His- 
tory — a work, not only, as Pliny the Younger describes 
it, as full of variety as Nature herself, but, as will be 
shown hereafter, a treasure-house of the arts, as well as 
of natural objects. 

" You will wonder," he continues, " how a man occu- 
pied with official business could have completed so many 
volumes filled with such minute information. You will 
be still more surprised to learn that he practised some- 



See Prsef. to N. H. 



HABITS OF PLINY THE ELDER. 517 

times as a pleader; that he died in his fifty-sixth year; 
and that the intermediate time was distracted and inter- 
rupted by the friendship oi princes and most important 
public affairs. But he was a man of vigorous intellect, 
incredible application, and unwearied activity. Imme- 
diately after the festival of the Vulcanalia (August 23rd), 
he used to begin to study in the dead of the night ; in 
the winter at one o'clock in the morning, at the latest at 
two, often at midnight. ~No one ever slept so little — 
sometimes he would snatch a brief interval of sleep in the 
midst of his studies. Before dawn he would wait upon 
the Emperor, for he also used the night for transacting 
business. Thence he proceeded to the discharge of his 
official duties ; and whatever time remained he devoted 
to study. 

" After a light and frugal meal, which, according to the 
old fashion, he partook of by day, he would in summer, 
if he had any leisure time, recline in the sun whilst a 
book was read to him, from which he took notes and 
made extracts. In fact, he never read any book without 
making extracts ; for he used to say that no book was so 
bad but that some profit could be derived from it. After 
sunset he generally took a cold bath, then a slight repast, 
and afterwards slept for a very short time. When he 
awoke, as if it were a new day, he studied till supper : 
during which a book was read, on which he made anno- 
tations as the reading proceeded. I remember that one 
of his friends interrupted the reader, because he had mis- 
pronounced a word, and compelled him to repeat it ; upon 
which my uncle asked, • Did you understand him ?' and 
when he answered in the affirmative, he continued — 
' Why did you interrupt him ? we have lost more than 
ten lines ;' — so frugal was he of his time. In summer 
he rose from the supper-table by daylight, in winter at 
nightfall ; and this custom was a law to him. 

" These were his habits amidst the toils and bustle of a 



518 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

town-life. In tlie retirement of the country the bath was 
the only interruption to his studies. But only the bath 
itself, — for whilst he was rubbed and wiped dry, he either 
dictated to an amanuensis or had a book read to him. 
On journeys, as he was then relieved from all other cares, 
study was the only employment of his leisure. He had 
a precis-writer at his side, with books and tablets, who 
in the winter wore gloves, so that his master's studies 
might not be interrupted by the severity of the cold. 
For the same reason, when at Eome, he always used a 
sedan. I remember once having been chid by him for 
walking : ' You might/ said he, ' avoid wasting all this 
time.' For he thought all time was lost which was not 
devoted to study. By this intense application he com- 
pleted so many volumes, and bequeathed to me besides one 
hundred and sixty rolls of commentaries, written in the 
smallest possible hand and on both sides. He used to 
say that when he was procurator in Spain, he was offered 
for a portion of them 400,000 sesterces (about 3,200/.), 
by Lartius Licinius. * * * * * J cannot help 
laughing when people call me studious, for, compared 
with him, I am the idlest fellow in the world." 

Pliny perished a martyr to the cause of science, in the 
terrible eruption of Vesuvius, which took place in the 
first year of the reign of Titus. 1 Had he been as ardent 
an original observer in all other respects, instead of a 
mere plodding student, and collector, and transcriber of 
other men's observations, his works would have been less 
voluminous but more valuable. The eruption in which 
he perished was the first of which there is any record in 
history. It is probable that none of any consequence 
had occurred before ; and that the lava had never before 
devastated the smiling slopes and green vineyards which 
Martial has described. 2 The circumstances of his death 



A. D. 79, 2 Ep. iv. 43. 



ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS. 519 

are thus described by his nephew 1 in two letters to 
Tacitus : — " He was at Misenum, in command of the 
fleet. On the 24th of August, about one o' clock p.m., my 
mother pointed out to him a cloud of unusual size and 
appearance. He had lain in the sunshine, bathed, and 
taken refreshment, and was now studying. He forth- 
with asked for his shoes ; and ascended an eminence from 
which he could best see the phenomenon. The distance 
was too great to know for certain from what mountain 
the cloud arose, but it was afterwards ascertained to be 
Vesuvius. Its form resembled that of a pine-tree more 
than anything else. It rose into the air in the form of 
a tall trunk, and then diffused itself like spreading 
branches. The reason of this I take to be that it was at 
first carried upwards by a fresh current of air, which as it 
grew older and weaker was unable to support it, or per- 
haps its own gravity caused it to vanish in a horizontal 
direction. Sometimes it was white, sometimes solid 
and spotted, according to the quantity of earth and ashes 
which it threw up. 

" The phenomenon appeared to him, as a learned man, 
deserving of closer investigation. He ordered a light 
galley to be fitted out, and gave me permission to ac- 
company him. I replied that I preferred studying, and 
as it chanced he himself had given me something to write. 
Just as he was leaving the house with his note-book in 
his hand, the troops stationed at Retina, a village at 
the foot of the mountain, from which there was no 
escape, except by sea, alarmed by the imminent peril they 
were in, sent to entreat him to rescue them. Notwith- 
standing this circumstance his determination was un- 
altered ; but the task which he had commenced with 
earnestness he went through with the greatest resolu- 
tion. 



1 Ep. vi. 16, 20. 



520 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

" He launched some quadriremes, and embarked for the 
purpose of assisting, not Eetina only, but others ; for the 
beauty of the coast had attracted a large population. He 
hastened to the spot whence others were flying, and 
steered a direct course to the point of danger, so fearlessly 
that he observed all the phases and forms of that sad 
calamity, and dictated his remarks on them to his secre- 
tary. Soon ashes fell on the decks, and the nearer he 
approached the hotter and thicker they became. With 
them were mingled scorched and blackened pumice-stones, 
and stones split by fire. Now the sudden reflux of the 
sea, and the fragments of the volcano which covered the 
coast, presented an obstacle to his progress, and he hesi- 
tated for awhile whether he should not return. At 
length, when his sailing-master recommended him to do 
so, he exclaimed, ' Fortune favours the brave — steer for 
the villa of Pomponianus.' 

" This was situated at Stabise, and was divided from the 
coast near Vesuvius by an inlet or gulf formed by the 
sea. His friend, although danger was not yet imminent, 
yet, as it was within sight, and would be very near if it 
increased, had put his baggage on board of ship, and had 
determined on flight if the wind, which was then con- 
trary, should lull. A fair wind carried my uncle thither. 
He embraced his trembling friend, consoled and encouraged 
him. In order to assuage his fears by showing his own 
unconcern, he caused himself to be carried to a bath : 
after bathing he sat down to supper with cheerfulness, or, 
what is almost the same thing, with the appearance of it. 
Meanwhile from many parts of the volcano broad flames 
burst forth : the blaze was reflected from the sky, and the 
glare and brightness were enhanced by the darkness of 
the night. He, to soothe the alarm of Pomponianus, 
endeavoured to persuade him that what he saw was only 
the burning villages which the country -people had de- 
serted in their consternation. He then retired to rest 



ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS. 521 

and slept soundly ; for liis snoring, which on account of 
his broad chest was deep and resonant, was heard by 
those who were watching at the door. 

" Soon the court through which there was access to his 
apartment was so choaked with cinders and pumice that 
longer delay would have rendered escape impossible. He 
was awakened ; and went to Pomponianus and the rest, 
who had sat up all night. They then held a consultation 
whether they should remain in the house or go into the 
open fields. For repeated shocks of an earthquake made 
the houses rock to and fro, and seemed to move them 
from their foundations ; whilst in the air the fall of half- 
burnt pumice, though light, menaced danger. After 
balancing the two dangers, he chose the latter course : 
with him, however, it was a comparison of reasons, with 
others of fears. They tied cushions over their heads with, 
towels, to protect them from the falling stones. Although 
it was now dav elsewhere, the darkness here was denser 
than the darkest night, broken only by torches and 
lights of different kinds. They next walked out to the 
coast to see whether the sea was calm enough to venture 
upon it, but it was still a waste of stormy waters. Then 
he spread a linen cloth and lay down upon it, asked for 
two or three draughts of cold water; and, afterwards, 
flames, and that sulphureous smell which is the fore- 
runner of them, put his companions to flight and aroused 
him. 

" He arose by the assistance of two slaves, and imme- 
diately fell down dead, suffocated as I imagine by the 
dense vapour, and the functions of his stomach being 
disordered, which were naturally weak, and liable to 
obstructions and difficulty of digestion. On the morning 
of the third day after his body was found entire, un- 
injured, and in the clothes in which he died ; its appear- 
ance was rather that of death than sleep." 

Pliny the Younger was left with his mother at Mi- 



522 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

senum; and in another letter gives an account of the 
appearance of the eruption at that place i 1 — 

" After my uncle's departure, I spent some time in 
study (for that was my object in remaining behind) : I 
then bathed and supped, and had some broken and rest- 
less sleep. For many days previously shocks of an earth- 
quake had been felt ; but they caused less alarm because 
they are usual in Campania ; but on that night they were 
so violent that it was thought they would not only shake 
but overturn everything. My mother burst into my 
bed-chamber — I was just rising in order to arouse her, in 
case she should be asleep. We sat down in the court 
which divided the house from the sea. I know not 
whether to call this courage or imprudence, for I was 
only in my eighteenth year. I asked for a volume of 
Livy, and began to read it leisurely and to make extracts. 

" Well ! a friend of my uncle came in who had lately 
arrived from Spain, and when he saw us sitting together, 
and me reading, he rebuked his patience and my ' insou- 
ciance.' Still I was not the less for that absorbed in my 
book. It was now seven o'clock, and the dawn broke 
faintly and languidly. The surrounding buildings were 
tottering ; and the space in which we were, being limited 
in extent, there was great reason to fear their fall. We then 
resolved to leave town. The populace followed in alarm. 

" When at a sufficient distance from the buildings we 
halted, and witnessed many a wonderful and alarming 
phenomenon. The carriages which we had ordered to be 
brought out, although the ground was very level, rolled 
in different directions, and even stones placed under the 
wheels could not stop them. The sea ebbed and seemed 
to be repelled by the earthquake. The coast certainly 
had advanced, and detained many marine animals on dry 
land. On the other side of the heavens hung a dark and 



1 Ep. vi. 20. 



ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS. 523 

aw ful cloud, riven by wreathed and quivering lines of 
fiery vapour, in long flashes resembling lightning, but 
larger. Then our friend from Spain exclaimed, with 
eagerness and vehemence, ' If your relative lives, he 
doubtless wishes your safety ; if he has perished, he wished 
you to survive him ! Why then do you delay to escape ?' 
Our answer was, ' We will not think of our own safety 
so long as we are uncertain of his.' Without any more 
delay he hurried off, and was soon beyond the reach of 
danger. Soon the cloud descended to the earth, and 
brooded over the sea ; it shrouded Caprese, and hid from 
our eyes the promontory of Misenum. My mother 
besought, entreated, nay commanded me to fly by all 
means ; she felt that, weighed down by years and infirmity, 
she should die contented if she had not been the cause 
of my death. I, on the other hand, persisted that I 
would not seek safety except with her. I took her by 
the hand and forced her to go forward. She obeyed re- 
luctantly, and blamed herself for delaying me. Ashes 
now began to fall, though as yet in small quantities. I 
looked back ; behind us was thick darkness, which poured 
over the earth like a torrent. ' Let us turn aside from 
the road/ said I, ' whilst we can see, for fear we should 
be thrown down and trampled under foot by the crowd 
in the darkness.' We had scarce time to [think about 
it] [sit down] when we were enveloped in darkness, not 
like that of a moonless night, or clouds, but like that of 
a room shut up when the lights are extinguished. Then 
were heard the shrieks of women, the wailings of infants, 
the shouts of men ; some were calling for their parents, 
others for then' children, others for their wives, whom 
they could only recognise by their voices. Some be- 
wailed their own misfortune, others that of their family ; 
some even from the fear of death prayed for death. 
Many lifted up their hands to the gods ; still more be- 
lieved that there were no gods, and that the last eternal 



524 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

night had overwhelmed the world. There were not 
wanting some to increase the real danger by fictitious and 
imaginary terrors ; and some brought word that the con- 
flagration was at Misenum : the false intelligence met 
with credence. By degrees the light returned ; but it 
seemed to us not the return of day, but the indication 
that the fire was approaching. Its progress, however, 
was arrested at some distance : again darkness succeeded 
with showers of ashes. Every now and then we got up and 
shook them off from us, otherwise we should have been 
overwhelmed and bruised by their weight. I might boast 
that not a groan or unmanly expression escaped me in the 
midst of my dangers, were it not that my firmness was 
founded on the consolatory belief that all mankind was 
involved, together with myself, in one common ruin. At 
length the darkness cleared up, and dispersed like smoke or 
mist. Eeal daylight succeeded ; even the sun shone forth, 
but with a lurid light as when eclipsed. The aspect of 
everything which met our astonished eyes was changed : 
ashes covered the ground like a deep snow. We returned 
to Misenum, and refreshed ourselves, and passed an 
anxious night in alternate hopes and fears : the latter, 
however, predominated. The earthquake still continued ; 
and many, in a state of frenzy, made a mockery of their 
own and their neighbours' misfortunes by terrific prophe- 
cies." The above letters, though long, have been quoted 
because they detail, in the most interesting manner, the 
circumstances of the elder Pliny's death, and at the same 
time illustrate the simple and graphic power of the 
nephew's pen. 

The Natural Philosophy of Pliny is, to say the least, an 
unequalled monument of studious diligence and perse- 
vering industry. It consists of thirty-seven books, and 
contains, according to his own account, 1 20,000 facts (as 



See Proem. 17. 



NATURAL HISTORY OF PI.INV. 525 

he believed them to he) connected with nature and art : 
the result, not of original research, but, as lie honestly con- 
fessed, culled from the labours of other men. It must, 
however, be allowed that the confused arrangement is 
owing partly to the indefinite state of science, and the 
consequent mingling together of branches which are 
separate and distinct. 1 

Owing to the extent and variety of liis reading, his 
credulous love of the marvellous, and his want of judg- 
ment in comparing and selecting, he does not present us 
with a correct view of the degree of truth to which 
science had attained in his own age. He does not show 
how one age had corrected the errors of a preceding one ; 
but reproduces errors, evidently obsolete and inconsist- 
ent with facts and theories which had grown up after- 
wards and replaced them. 

With him. mythological traditions appear to have 
almost the same authority as modern discoveries. The 
earth teems with monsters, not miracles, or exceptions to 
the regular order of nature, but specimens of her in- 
genuity. In his theory of the universe he assumes such 
causes and principles as lead him to admit, without 
question, the existence of prodigies, however impossible 
they may be. They are wonderful because unusual; but 
they are effects which might result from the natural 
causes which he believed to be in operation. His theory, 
that Nature acted not only by regular laws but often by 
actual interferences (for this was the character of his 
pantheism, ii., 5, 7) — his belief that the various germs 
of created things were scattered in profusion throughout 
the universe, and accidentally mingling in confusion pro- 
duced monstrous forms (3) — prepared him to consider 
nothing incredible (xi. 3) ; and his temper inclined him 
to go further, and to admit almost everything which was 
credible as true. 2 

1 Proem. 16, 17. 2 See book ii. 



526 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Deficient as the work is in scientific value and philo- 
sophical arrangement, the author evidently wished to 
stamp it with a character of practical utility. It is an 
encyclopaedia of the knowledge which could be brought 
together from different sources ; and for such a work 
there are two important requisites — facility of reference, 
and the citation of authorities. With this view the 
whole is preceded by a summary, and to each book is 
added a table of contents, together with the names of 
authors to whom he is indebted. 

The work commences with the theory of the universe ; l 
the history and science of astronomy ; meteorological 
phenomena; and the geological changes which have 
taken place on the earth by volcanic and aqueous action. 
Geography, both physical and political, occupy the four 
next books. 2 Here truth and error are mingled in dire 
confusion. Accounts which are based solely on the tra- 
ditions of remote antiquity are given side by side with 
the results of modern investigation, and yet no distinc- 
tion is drawn as to authenticity ; and, owing to his con- 
fusing together such different accounts, measurements 
and distances are generally wrong. 

But in the zoological division of the work, which next 
follows, 3 he gives unrestrained scope to his credulity and 
love of the marvellous. He tells of men whose feet 
were turned backwards ; of others whose feet were so 
large as to shade them when they lay in the sun. He 
describes beings in whom both sexes were united ; others 
in whom a change of sex had taken place ; others with- 
out mouths, who fed on the fragrance of fruits and 
flowers. 4 Such are some of the marvels of the human 
race recorded by him. Amongst the lower animals he 
enumerates horned horses furnished with winsrs ; 5 the 



Book ii. 2 Books iii.— vi. 3 Books vii. — xi. 

4 Book vii. 4. 5 Book viii. 30. 



NATURAL HISTORY OV PLINY. 527 

Mantichora, with the (lice of a man, three rows of teeth, a 
lion's body, and a scorpion's tail j 1 the unicorn with a 
stag's head, a horse's body, the feet of the elephant, and 
the tail of a boar ; 2 the basilisk, whose very glance is fatal. 
The seas are peopled not only with sea-goats and sea- 
elephants, but with real Nereids and Tritons. 3 Mice, 
according to his account, produce their young by licking 
each other ; and fire produces an insect (Pyralis) which 
cannot live except in the midst of the flames. 

Sixteen books 4 are devoted to botany, both general and 
medical; and the medicinal properties of the human 
frame, and of other animal substances, as well as of 
different waters, are next discussed. 5 An account of 
minerals and metals concludes the w^ork : and this portion 
embraces an account of their various uses in the fine arts, 
intermingled with interesting anecdotes and histories of 
art and artists. This is the most valuable as well as the 
most pleasing section of the w^ork. 

He w r as pre-eminently a collector of stories and anec- 
dotes and supposed facts, and he was only accidentally 
a naturalist, because natural history furnished the most 
extensive variety of marvellous and curious materials. The 
naturalist, Cuvier, 6 observed his want of judgment, his 
credulity, his defective arrangement, and the inappropriate 
nature of his observations. Notwithstanding all these 
faults this elaborate work contains many valuable truths, 
much entertaining information, and the style in which it is 
written is, when not too florid, full of vigour and expres- 
sion. The philosophical belief can scarcely be considered 
that of any particular school, although tinctured by the 
prevalent Stoicism of the day; but its pervading character 
is querulous and melancholy. Believing that nature is 
an all-powerful principle, and the world or universe itself, 



Book viii. 30. 2 Book viii. 31. 3 Book viii. 33. 

Books xii. — xxvii. 5 Books xxviii. — xxxii. 6 Biogr. Uh. art. Plin. 



528 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

instinct with Deity, lie saw more of evil than of good in 
the Divine dispensations : and the result was a gloomy 
and discontented pantheism. 

Pliny the Younger — (born a.d. 61). 

C. Plinins CaBcilius Secundus was sister's son to the 
elder Pliny. Most of the information which we possess 
respecting his life and character is derived from his 
letters. He was born at Novo-Comum, on the Lake 
Larins (Como) ; and as he was in his eighteenth year 1 at 
the time of the eruption of Vesuvius, which took place 
a.d. 79, the date of his birth must have been a.d. 61. 

On the death of his father, C. Csecilius, he was adopted 
by his uncle, and therefore took the name of Plinius. He 
was educated under the guardianship of Yirginius Eufus, 
who felt for him the affection of a parent. The regard 
was evidently mutual. " I loved him/' writes Pliny to 
Voconius, 2 with that tenderness which so frequently adorns 
his letters, especially those to his wife Calphurnia, " as 
much as I admired him ;" and he thus concludes his letter : 
" I had wished to write to you on many other subjects, 
but my thoughts are fully occupied on this one subject of 
contemplation. I see, I think of no one but Yirginius. 
In fancy I seem to hear his voice, to address him, to hold 
him in my arms. We may perhaps have, and shall con- 
tinue to have, men equal to him in virtue, but no one 
equal to him in glory." In belles-lettres and eloquence 3 
he attended constantly the lectures of Quintilian and 
Nicetes Sacerdos, of whom favourable mention is made by 
Seneca. 4 

Under the care of such tutors and such an uncle, his 
literary tastes were cultivated early, and before he had 
completed his fifteenth year he gave proof of his love of 
poetry, by writing what he modestly says was called a 



1 Ep. vi. 20. 2 Ep. ii. 1. 3 Ep. vi. 6. 4 Sen. Suasor. I. 



PANEGYRIC ON TRAJAN. 529 

Greek tragedy. This taste for poetry remained to him 
in after life : once when weather-bonnd at the island 
Icaria, he celebrated the event in an elegiac poem. He 
wrote hexameters, of which he gives a short specimen, and 
also a birth-day ode in hendecasyllables, and he tells us 
he wrote with quickness and facility. 1 

He was called to the bar in his nineteenth year, and 
attained great celebrity as a pleader. 2 He stood high 
in favour with Trajan ; and filled with distinction high 
offices, both military and civil. He was military tribune 
in Syria ; and, besides being prsetor and consul at home, 
he served as procurator of the province of Bithynia abroad. 
He was gentle, liberal, refined, and benevolent ; and his 
zeal for the interests of literature, and his wish that the 
youths of Como might not be forced to resort to Milan 
for education, but might owe that blessing to their native 
place, 3 led him to offer help in founding a school, in form- 
ing a public library, and in establishing exhibitions for 
ingenuous students. 4 He thought, with justice, such acts 
of munificence nobler than gaudy spectacles and barbarous 
shows of gladiators. 

His works consist of a Panegyric on Trajan, and a 
collection of Letters in ten books. The Panegyric is a 
piece of courtly flattery, for the fulsomeness of which the 
only defence which can be made, is the cringing and 
fawning manners of his times. It was written and de- 
livered in the year in which he was consul. 5 The Letters 
are very valuable, not only for the insight which they 
give into his own character, but also into the manners 
and modes of thought of his illustrious contemporaries, as 
well as the politics of the day. Many of them bear 
evident marks of having been expressly intended for 
publication. This of course detracts from their value as 



i 



1 Ep. vii. 4. 2 Ep. v. 8. 8 Ep. iv. 13. 4 Ep. i. 8. 

5 a. d. 100. 

2 M 



530 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

fresh and truthful exponents of the writer's thoughts, 
which all letters ought to be ; but they are most delightful 
to read, and for liveliness, descriptive power, elegance, and 
simplicity of style, are scarcely inferior to those of Cicero, 
whom he evidently took for his model. 

The tenth book, which consists of his despatches to 
Trajan, together with the Emperor's rescripts, will be 
read with the greatest interest ; and the notices of public 
affairs contained in them are most valuable to the historian. 
The despatch respecting the Christians, written from 
Bithynia, a.d. 104, and the Emperor's answer, 1 are 
well worthy of transcription ; both because reference is 
so often made to them, and because they throw light 
upon the marvellous and rapid propagation of the Gospel ; 
the manners of the early Christians ; the treatment to 
which their constancy exposed them, even under favour- 
able circumstances ; and the severe jealousy with which 
even a governor of mild and gentle temper thought it 
his duty to regard them. "It is my constant practice, 
Sire, to refer to you all subjects on which I entertain 
doubt. For who is better able to direct my hesitation 
or to instruct my ignorance ? I have never been present 
at the trials of Christians, and therefore I do not know 
in what way, or to what extent, it is usual to question or 
to punish them. I have also felt no small difficulty in 
deciding whether age should make any difference, or 
whether those of the tenderest and those of mature years 
should be treated alike ; whether pardon should be ac- 
corded to repentance, or whether, where a man has once 
been a Christian, recantation should profit him ; whether, 
if the name of Christian does not imply criminality, still 
the crimes peculiarly belonging to the name should 
be punished. Meanwhile, in the case of those against 
whom informations have been laid before me, I have pur- 



Ep. x. 97 and 



I 



DESPATCH RESPECTING THE CHRISTIANS. 531 

sued the following line of conduct. I have put to them, 
personally, the question whether they were Christians. 
If they confessed, I interrogated them a second and third 
time, and threatened them with punishment. If they 
still persevered, I ordered their commitment ; for I had 
no doubt whatever that, whatever they confessed, at any 
rate dogged and inflexible obstinacy deserved to be 
punished. There were others who displayed similar mad- 
ness ; but, as they were Roman citizens, I ordered them 
to be sent back to the city. Soon persecution itself, as 
is generally the case, caused the crime to spread, and 
it appeared in new forms. An anonymous information 
was laid against a large number of persons, but they 
deny that they are, or ever have been, Christians. As 
they invoked the gods, repeating the form after me, and 
offered prayers, together with incense and wine, to your 
image, which I had ordered to be brought, together 
with those of the deities, and besides cursed Christ, whilst 
those who are true Christians, it is said, cannot be com- 
pelled to do any one of these firings, I thought it right 
to set them at liberty. Others, when accused by an 
informer, confessed that they were Christians, and soon 
after denied the fact ; they said they had been, but had 
ceased to be, some three, some more, not a few even twenty 
years previously. All these worshipped your image and 
those of the gods, and cursed Christ. But they affirmed 
that the sum-total of their fault or their error was, that 
they .were accustomed to assemble on a fixed day before 
dawn, and sing an antiphonal hymn to Christ as Grod : 
that they bound themselves by an oath, not to the com- 
mission of any wickedness, but to abstain from theft, 
robbery, and adultery ; never to break a promise, or to 
deny a deposit when it was demanded back. When these 
ceremonies were concluded, it was their custom to depart, 
and again assemble together to take food harmlessly 
and in common. That after my proclamation, in which, 

2 m 2 



532 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

in obedience to your command, I had forbidden associa- 
tions, they had desisted from this practice. For these 
reasons I the more thought it necessary to investigate 
the real truth, by putting to the torture two maidens, 
who were called deaconesses ; but I discovered nothing 
but a perverse and excessive superstition. I have there- 
fore deferred taking cognizance of the matter until I had 
consulted you. For it seemed to me a case requiring 
advice, especially on account of the number of those in 
peril. For many of every age, sex, and rank, are and 
will continue to be called in question. The infection in 
fact has spread not only through the cities, but also 
through the villages and open country ; but it seems that 
its progress can be arrested. At any rate, it is clear that 
the temples which were almost deserted begin to be fre- 
quented ; and solemn sacrifices, which had been long in- 
termitted, are again performed, and victims are being sold 
everywhere, for which up to this time a purchaser could 
rarely be found. It is therefore easy to conceive that 
crowds might be reclaimed if an opportunity for repent- 
ance were given." 

Trajan to Pliny. 

" In sifting the cases of those who have been indicted 
on the charge of Christianity, you have adopted, my dear 
Secundus, the right course of proceeding ; for no certain 
rule can be laid down which will meet all cases. They must 
not be sought after, but if they are informed against and 
convicted, they must be punished; with this proviso, 
however, that if any one denies that he is a Christian, 
and proves the point by offering prayers to our deities, 
notwithstanding the suspicions under which he has 
laboured, he shall be pardoned on his repentance. On no 
account should any anonymous charge be attended to, 
for it would be the worst possible precedent, and is in- 
consistent with the habits of our times." 



THE BEAUTY OF HIS WRITINGS. 533 

Pliny's accurate and judicial mind, his political and 
administrative prudence, his taste for the beautiful, 
his power of description, his unrivalled neatness, his 
skill in investing with a peculiar interest every subject 
he takes in hand, may be amply proved by a perusal of 
his Letters. His touches are neither too many nor too 
few. A mere note of thanks for a present of thrushes 1 
shows as much skill, in its way, as his numerous elabo- 
rate despatches to the Emperor. 2 His brief biographical 
notice of Silius Italicus contains, in a few short sentences, 
all that can be said favourably of the life and character 
of Ins correspondent. The sympathy which he felt for 
his friends, as well as the delicacy of his panegyric, are 
exhibited in the few lines which he penned to Geminius 
on the death of the wife of Macrinus ; 3 his honesty in the 
case of the inheritance of Pomponia ; 4 his legal skill in 
passages too numerous to specify ; his descriptive power 
in the narrative of the eruption of Vesuvius, 5 in which his 
uncle perished ; and in the full and minute description of 
his villa, its rooms, furniture, works of art, garden, and 
surrounding scenery. 



1 Ep. v. ii. 2 Lib. x. 3 Ep. viii. 5, 

4 Ep. v. 1. 5 Ep. vi. 20. 



534 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER X. 

M. FABIUS QUINTILIANUS — HIS BIOGRAPHY — HIS INSTITUTIONES 
ORATORIO — HIS VIEWS ON EDUCATION— DIVISION OF HIS SUBJECT 
INTO FIVE PARTS— REVIEW OF GREEK AND ROMAN LITERATURE — 
COMPLETENESS OF HIS GREAT WORK — HIS OTHER WORKS — HIS 
DISPOSITION — GRIEF FOR THE LOSS OF HIS SON. 

M. Fabius Quintilianus. 

In this peculiarly rhetorical age the most distinguished 
teacher of rhetoric was M. Fabius Quintilianus. He 
attempted to restore a purer and more classical taste; 
and although to a certain extent he was successful, the 
effect which he produced was only temporary. He was, 
like Martial, a Spaniard, born 1 at Calagurris, the modern 
Calahorra. 2 At an early age he came to Rome, and had 
the advantage of hearing the celebrated orators Domitius 
Afer and Julius Africanus, whose eloquence he considered 
superior to that of their contemporaries. 3 How long he 
remained at Eome is uncertain ; but he appears to have 
gone back to his native country, and then returned to the 
capital together with the Emperor Gralba. 

Although he practised as a pleader, he was far more 
eminent as an instructor. Domitian entrusted to him 
the education of his two great-nephews ; 4 and the younger 
Pliny was also one of his pupils. 5 The Emperor's favour 



a. D. 40. 2 Anson. Profess, i. 7. 3 Inst. Or. i. 138. 

4 I. 0. iv. Proem. 5 PI. Ep. ii. 14. * 



BIOGRAPHY OF QUINTILIAN. 535 

conferred on him that reward to which Juvenal alludes 
in the following line : — 

Si For tuna volet fies de rhetore consul ; l 

and besides this lie held one of the professorships which 
were endowed by Vespasian with 100,000 sestertia per 
annum (800/.) a He thus formed an exception to the 
larger number of instructors and grammarians who 
swarmed in Rome, who, depending on the fees of their 
pupils, earned a precarious subsistence, 3 and was even 
able to purchase estates and accumulate property. 

But though more fortunate than many deserving 
members of his profession, he was not esteemed a wealthy 
man by the rich and luxurious Romans of his day ; for 
his grateful pupil, Pliny, when he presented him with 
400^. towards his daughter's portion, spoke of him as a 
man of moderate means. 4 His expressions are ; — " Te 
porro, animo beatissimum, modicum facultatibus scio." 
The probability is that he was twice married. His first 
wife died at the early age of nineteen, leaving two sons, 
of whom death bereaved him in a few years. 5 For the 
instruction of the elder of these, who survived his 
younger brother for but a short time, he wrote his great 
work. His second wife was the daughter of one Tutilius, 
and the fruit of this marriage was an only daughter, 
who married Nonius Celer, and to whom the liberal 
present of Pliny was made. For twenty years he dis- 
charged the duties of his professorship, and then retired 
from active life ; and died, as is generally supposed, about 
a.d. 118. His countryman, Martial, 6 speaks of him as 
the glory of the Roman bar, and the head of his profession 
as an instructor : — 

Quintiliane, vagae moderator summe juventse, 
Gloria Komanse, Quintiliane, togae. r 



1 Sat. vii. 197. Another professor of rhetoric, Ausonius, was also ele- 
vated to the consulship by the Emperor Gratian, a. d. 379. 

1 Suet. Vcsp. 18. 3 Juv. vii. 186. 4 Ep. vi. 32. 

5 I. O. vi. Proem. 6 Epig. i. 62. < Epig. ii. 90. 



536 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Quintilian's great work is entitled lnstitutiones Oratorice, 
or a complete instruction in the art of oratory : and in 
it lie shows himself far superior to Cicero as a teacher, 
although he was inferior to him as an orator. The 
rhetorical works of the great orator will not, in point of 
fulness and completeness, bear a comparison with the 
elaborate treatise of Quintilian. When engaged in its 
composition he had retired from the duties of a public 
professor, and was only occupied, as he himself states, 1 
with his duties as tutor to the great-nephews of Domitian. 
He professes to have undertaken the task reluctantly, and 
at the earnest solicitations of his friends. He thought 
that the ground was already preoccupied, both by Greek 
and Latin writers of eminence. But seeing how wide 
the field was, and that such a work must treat of all those 
qualifications without which no one can be an orator, he 
complied with their entreaties, and dedicated his book to 
his friend Marcellus Yictorius, as a token of his regard, 
and a useful contribution towards the education of his 
son. Two rhetorical treatises had already appeared under 
his name, but not published by himself. One consisted 
of a lecture which occupied two days in delivery ; the 
other a longer course : and both had been taken down in 
notes, and given to the public, as he says, by his excel- 
lent but too partial pupils : (boni juvenes, sed nimium 
amantes mei.) 2 

On the lnstitutiones he professes to have expended the 
greatest pains and labour. He traces the progress of the 
orator from the very cradle until he arrives at perfection. 3 
He speaks of the importance of earliest impressions, of 
the parental, especially the maternal care, and illustrates 
this by the example of Cornelia, to whom the Gracchi owed 
then eminence ; and brings forward, as instances of female 
eloquence, the daughters of Lselius and Hortensius. He 



I. 0. Proem, iv. * I. O. Proem. I. 3 Lib. i. i. 



HIS VIEWS ON EDUCATION. 537 

believes that education must commence, and the tastes 
be formed, and the moral character be impressed, even in 
infancy. The choice, therefore, of a nurse is, in his 
opinion, as important as of early companions, pedagogues, 
and instructors. 

Both on account of the positive good to be acquired, 
and the evil resulting from the corrupt state of Koman 
society which the boy would thus avoid, he prefers a 
school to a home education. 1 As we consider the classical 
languages the best preparation for the study of the 
vernacular tongue 2 so he lays down as an axiom that 
education in Greek literature should precede Latin. 
Grammar 3 is to be the foundation of education, together 
with its subdivisions, declension, construction, 4 ortho- 
graphy, 5 the use of words, 6 rhythm, metre, the beauties 
and. faults of style, 7 reading, 8 delivery, action ; 9 and to 
these are to be added music and geometry. 10 

Primary education being completed, the young student 
is to be transferred to the care of the rhetorician. 11 The 
choice of a proper instructor, 12 as well as his duties and 
character 13 are described; the necessary exercises, the 
reading and study of orations and histories are recom- 
mended, 14 and the nature, principles, objects, and utility 
of oratory . are accurately investigated. In the third 
book, after a short notice of the principal writers on 
rhetoric/ 5 he divides his subject into five parts, 16 namely, 
invention, arrangement, style, memory, both natural and 
artificial, and delivery or action. Closely following 
Aristotle, he then discusses the three kinds of oratory, 
the demonstrative, deliberative, and judicial. 17 In the 
fourth, he treats of the physical divisions of all orations, 



1 Cap. ii. 2 Cap. i. 3 Lib. i. passim. 4 Cap. iii. 

5 Cap. vi. c Cap. vii. 7 Cap. v. 8 Cap. viii. 

9 Cap. xi. 10 Cap. x. " Lib. ii. i. l * Cap. iii. 

18 Cap. ii. M Cap. iv. and v. !5 Cap. xiii. ad fin. 

' 6 Lib. i. ii. 1? Cap. iii. ad fin. 



538 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

namely, the exordium, 1 the narration, 2 excursions or 
digressions, 3 the question proposed, 4 the division of 
topics. 5 In that part of his treatise which discusses the 
next division, namely, proofs, Aristotle is his chief guide, 
as meriting, in his opinion, the universal assent of all 
mankind. The sixth book analyses the peroration, and 
also discusses the passions, 6 moral habits, 7 ridicule, 8 and 
other topics, which complete the subject of invention. 
The seventh treats of arrangement and its kindred 
topics ; the eighth and ninth of style and its essential 
qualities, such as perspicuity, 9 ornament, 10 tropes, 11 am- 
plification, 12 figures of speech. 13 

Facility, or, as we in common with the Romans, fre- 
quently term it, " copia verborum, 141 is the next division of 
the subject ; and as original invention has already occupied 
so large a portion of his work, he now endeavours to 
guide the student in imitating the excellences of the 
best Greek and Latin writers ; and tells him that the 
next duty, in point of importance, is to profit by the 
inventions of others. 15 A wide field is thus opened before 
him, affording an opportunity for the display of his 
extensive learning, his critical taste, his penetrating dis- 
crimination, and his great power of illustration. 1 ' 5 

He passes over in rapid review the whole history of 
Greek and Roman literature. His remarks, though 
brief, are clear and decided, and are marked with an 
attractive beauty and sound judgment which have stood 
the test of ages, and recommend themselves to all who 
have been distinguished for pure classical taste. So 
adroit is he in catching the leading features, that the 
portraits of great authors of antiquity, though only 



1 Lib. iv. i. 2 Cap. ii. 


5 Cap. iii. iv. 


4 Cap. v. 


5 Lib. v. i. — xiv. 6 Cap. i. 


7 Cap. ii. 


8 Cap. iii. 


9 Cap. ii. 10 Cap. iii. 


11 Cap. vi. 


12 Cap. iv. 


13 Lib. ix. i. ii. iii. 


14 Lib. x. i. 


15 Lib. x. ii. 


16 Lib. x. i. and lib. xii. x. xi. 







HIS 1NSTITUTI0NES. 539 

sketches and outlines, stand forth in bold and tangible 
shape, each exhibiting* marked and distinct characteristics. 
There are few specimens of criticism so attractive, so 
suggestive, and which lay such hold on the memory, as 
this portion of the Institutions of Quintilian. Other 
subjects are also briefly handled in the tenth book, such 
as the necessity of pains and elaborate corrections, in 
order to form a polished style, 1 the choice of materials, 2 
original thought, 3 the means of acquiring and perfecting 
a habit of extemporaneous speaking. 4 

The eleventh book is devoted to the subjects of appro- 
priateness, memory, 5 and delivery. 6 

The twelfth opens with what the author designates 7 as 
the most grave and important portion of the whole work, 
well worthy of the dignified character of true Eoman 
virtue. Its subject is the high moral qualifications neces- 
sary for a perfect orator. 8 Talent, wisdom, learning, 
eloquence are nothing, if the mind is distracted and torn 
asunder by vicious thoughts and depraved passions. 9 The 
orator, therefore, must learn by what studies his moral 
character can alone be formed ; 10 he must possess that 
firmness of principle which will cause him fearlessly to 
practise what he knows. " Neque erit perfectus orator 
nisi qui honeste dicere et sciet et audebit." 

A knowledge of history 11 and the principles of juris- 
prudence, 12 he also considers indispensably necessary, not- 
withstanding the slighting way in which Cicero speaks 
of the antiquarian learning of the jurisconsults. Some 
practical rules 13 are also added as to the time of com- 
mencing practice in the courts, the rules to be observed 
in undertaking causes, 14 and the cautions to be attended 
to in preparing and pleading them. 15 He deprecates the 



1 Lib. iii. iv. 


2 Cap. v. 


3 Cap. vi. 


4 Cap. vii 


5 Lib. xi. i. 


6 Cap. ii. iii. 


7 Vide Proem. 


8 Cap. i. 


Cap. i. 


10 Cap. ii. 


11 Lib. iv. 


,e Lib. iii. 


13 Cap. vi. 


" Cap. vii. 


15 Cap. viii. ix. 





540 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

undertaking sucli important duties early, although the 
call to the bar at Borne took place as soon as the manly 
gown was assumed : tradition spoke of boys clothed with 
the prsetexta pleading. Caesar Augustus, at twelve years 
old, publicly pronounced a eulogy on his grandmother, 
as did Tiberius at the early age of nine over the body of 
his deceased father. 1 

Enough has been said to show the fulness and com- 
pleteness with which Quintilian has exhausted his subject, 
and left, as a monument of his taste and genius, a text- 
book of the science and art of oratory, as well as a 
masterly sketch of the eloquence of antiquity. 

There have been attributed to Quintilian, besides his 
great work, nineteen declamations or judicial speeches 
relating to imaginary suits ; also one hundred and forty- 
five sketches of orations, the remains of a larger collec- 
tion consisting of three hundred and eighty-eight. But 
there is no evidence in favour of their being his, and 
their style seems to show that they were the work of 
different authors and different ages. Neither is there 
any good reason for considering that the treatise on the 
Causes of Corrupt Eloquence is the same as that to which 
he alludes in the proemium to the sixth and the con- 
clusion of the eighth book 2 of the Institutions. Indeed, 
the almost unanimous opinion of scholars assigns it to 
Tacitus. His works were discovered by Poggius, toge- 
ther with those of Silius Italicus and L. Valerius Flaccus, 
in the monastery of St. Gall, twenty miles from Con- 
stance, during the sitting of the celebrated ecclesiastical 
council. 

The disposition of Quintilian was as affectionate and 
tender as his genius was brilhant, and his taste pure. 
Few passages throughout the whole range of Latin 
literature can be compared to that in which he mourns 



Suet. v. Ti. a Lib. viii. 6. 



HIS GRIEF AT THE LOSS OF HIS SON. 5 11 

the loss of Iris wife and children. It is the touching 
eloquence of one who could not write otherwise than 
gracefully; and if lie murmurs at the divine decrees, it 
musfc be remembered that his dearest hopes were blighted, 
and that he had not the hopes, the consolation, or the 
teaching of a Christian. " I had a son," he says, " whose 
eminent genius deserved a father's anxious diligence. I 
thought that if — which I might fairly have expected 
and wished for — Death had removed me from him, I 
could have left him as the best inheritance — a father's 
instructions. But by a second blow, a second bereave- 
ment, I have lost the object of my highest hopes, the 
only comfort of my declining years. What shall I do 
now ? Of what use can I suppose myself to be as the gods 
have cast me off? It happened that when I commenced 
my book on the Causes of Corrupt Eloquence, I was 
stricken by a similar blow. It would surely have been 
best then to have flung upon the funeral pile — which was 
destined prematurely to consume all that bound me to 
life — my unlucky work, and the ill-starred fruits of all 
my toils, and not to have wearied with new cares a life 
to which I so unnaturally clung. For what tender 
parent would pardon me if I were able to study any 
longer, and not hate my firmness of mind, if I, who sur- 
vived all my dear ones, could find any employment for 
my tongue except to accuse the gods, and to protest 
that no Providence looks down upon the affairs of men ? 
If I cannot say this in reference to my own case, to 
which no objection can be made except that I survive, 
at least I can with reference to theirs — condemned to 
an unmerited and untimely grave." 

" Their mother had before been torn from me, who had 
given birth to two sons before she had completed her 
nineteenth year ; and though her death was a cruel blow 
to me, to her it was a happy one. To me the affliction 
was so crushing, that fortune could no longer restore 



542 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

me to happiness. For not only did the exercise of 
every feminine virtue render her husband's grief incurable, 
but, compared with my own age, she was but a girl, and 
therefore her loss may be accounted as that of a child. 
Still, my children survived, and were my joy and comfort, 
and she, since I survived (a thing unnatural, although 
she wished it), escaped by a precipitate flight the agonies 
of grief. In my younger son, who died at five years 
old, I lost one light of my eyes. I have no ambition 
to make much of my misfortunes, or to exaggerate the 
reasons which I have for sorrow; would that I had 
means of assuaging it ! But how can I conceal his 
lovely countenance, his endearing talk, his sparkling wit, 
and (what I feel can scarcely be believed) his calm and 
deep solidity of mind? Had he been another's child 
he would have won my love. But insidious fortune, 
in order to inflict on me severer anguish, made him 
more affectionate to me than to his nurses, his grand- 
mother who brought him up, and all who usually gain 
the attachment of children of that age. 

" Thankful therefore do I feel for that sorrow in which 
but a few months before I was plunged by the loss of his 
matchless, his inestimable mother ; for my lot was less 
a subject for tears than hers was for rejoicing. One 
only hope, support, and consolation, had remained in my 
Quintilian. He had not, like my younger son, just 
put forth his early blossoms, but entering on his tenth 
year had shown mature and well-set fruit. I swear by 
my misfortunes, by the consciousness of my unhappiness, 
by those departed spirits, the deities who preside over 
my grief, that in him I discerned such vigour of intellect, 
not only in the acquisition of learning (and yet in 
all my extensive experience I never saw it surpassed), 
such a zeal for study, which, as his tutors can testify, 
never required pressing, but also such uprightness, filial 
affection, refinement, and generosity, as furnished 



HIS GRIEF AT THE LOSS OF HIS SON. 543 

grounds for apprehending the thunder- stroke which has 
fallen. For it is generally observed that a precocious 
maturity too quickly perishes ; and there is I know not 
what envious power which deflowers our brightest hopes, 
lost we soar higher than human beings are permitted 
to soar. He possessed also those gifts which are acci- 
dental — a clear and melodious voice, a sweet pronuncia- 
tion, a correct enunciation of every letter both in Greek 
and Latin. Such promise did he give of future ex- 
cellence ; but he possessed also the far higher qualities 
of constancy, earnestness, and firmness to bear sorrow 
and to resist fear. With what admiration did his 
physicians contemplate the patience with which he 
endured a malady of eight months' duration ! What 
consolation did he administer to me in his last mo- 
ments ! When life and intellect began to fail, his 
wandering mind dwelt on literature alone. dearest 
object of my disappointed hopes, could I behold thy 
glazing eyes, thy fleeting breath ! Could I embrace thy 
cold and lifeless form, and live to drink again the common 
air ! Well do I deserve these agonizing thoughts, these 
tortures which I endure ! " 



544 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER XL 

A. CORNELIUS CELSUS — HIS MERITS — CICERO MEDICORUM — SCRI- 
BONIUS LARGUS DESIGN ATI ANUS— POMPONIUS MELA — L. JUNIUS 
MODERATUS COLUMELLA — S. JULIUS FRONTINUS — DECLINE OF 
TASTE IN THE SILVER AGE — FOREIGN INFLUENCE ON ROMAN 
LITERATURE — CONCL USION. 

Such were trie principal writers who adorned and illus- 
trated the literature of the silver age : it remains only to 
speak briefly of those whose works, although of minor 
interest, must not be passed over without notice. 

Aurelius Cornelius Celsus* 

Celsus was the author of many works on various 
subjects, of which one, in eight books, on Medicine is 
now extant. The place of his birth and the age at 
which he flourished are unknown, but he probably lived 
in the reign of Tiberius. He was a man of compre- 
hensive, almost of encyclopaedic knowledge, and wrote 
on philosophy, rhetoric, agriculture, and even strategy. 
It has been doubted whether he ever practised medicine, 
or was only theoretically acquainted with the subject; 
but the independence of his views, the practical as well 
as the scientific nature of his instructions, are incon- 
sistent with any hypothesis except that he had himself 
patiently watched the phenomena of morbid action, and 
experimented upon its treatment. Above all, his know- 
ledge of surgery, and liis clear exposition of surgical 



MERITS OF CELSUS. 545 

operations, necessarily imply that practical experience 
and reality of knowledge which never conld have been 
acquired from books. 

If we compare the masterly handling of the subject 
by Celsus with the history of medicine by Pliny/ it is 
easy to distinguish the man of practical and experi- 
mental science from the collector and transcriber of 
others' views. His manual of medicine embraces the 
following subjects : — Diet, 2 Pathology, 3 Therapeutics, 4 
Surgery ; 5 and without entering into its peculiar merits, 
a task which could only be performed satisfactorily by 
a professional writer, the highest testimony is borne to 
its merits by the fact of its being used as a text-book 
even in the present advanced state of medical science. 

The study of medicine has a tendency to predispose 
the mind for general scientific investigations in other 
departments not immediately connected with it. Hence 
the medical profession has numbered amongst its 
members many men of general scientific attainments ; 
and Celsus was an example of this versatility. The 
taste of the age in which he lived turned his attention 
also to polite literature ; and to this may be ascribed the 
Augustan purity of his style, which gained for him the 
appellation of " Cicero Medicorum." 

Scribonius Largus Design atianus. 

The " Cicero of physicians " was followed by Scri- 
bonius, an obsequious court physician, in the reign of 
Claudius. He was the author of several works, one of 
which, a large collection of prescriptions, is extant. In 
the language of impious flattery he calls the imbecile 
Emperor a god. He is said to have accompanied him in 
his expedition to Britain. 



1 H. N. xxix. 2 Cap. i. ii. 3 Cap. iii. iv. « Cap. v. vi. 

5 Cap. vii. viii. 

2 N 



546 roman classical literature. 

Pomponius Mela. 

Pomponius Mela may be considered as the repre- 
sentative of the Soman geographers. He was a native 
of Tingentera, a town in Spain, and lived in the reign of 
Claudius. His treatise is entitled, " De Situ Orbis, 
Libri in." It is systematic and learned. The stores 
of information derived from the Greek geographers are 
interspersed with entertaining myths and lively descrip- 
tions. The knowledge, however, contained in it is all 
taken from books : it is an epitome of former treatises, 
and is not enriched by the discoveries of more recent 
travellers. The simplicity of the style, and the almost 
Augustan purity of the Latinity, prevent even so bare a 
skeleton and list of facts from being dry and uninteresting. 

L. Junius Moderatus Columella. 

The didactic work of Columella gives, in smooth and 
fluent, though somewhat too diffuse, a style, the fullest 
and completest information on practical agriculture 
amongst the Eomans in the first century of the Christian 
sera. Pliny is the only classical author who mentions 
him ; but he refers to him as a competent authority. 
Columella himself informs us that he was born at Grades 
(Cadiz), 1 and resided at Eome, 2 but had travelled in Syria 
and Cilicia. 3 It is generally supposed that he died and 
was buried at Tarentum. 

His work, " De Re Rustled" is divided into twelve 
books. It treats of all subjects connected with the 
choice and management of a farm, 4 the arrangement of 
farm buildings, 5 the propagation and rearing of stock, 6 
the cultivation of fruit-trees, 7 and household economy. 8 

1 Lib. x. 185. a Praef. 20. 3 Lib. ii. 10. 

4 Lib. ii. 5 Lib. i. e Lib. vi. vii. viii. ix. 

7 Lib. iii, iv. v, B Lib. xii, 



SEXTUS JULIUS FRONTINUS. 547 

A calendar is attached to the eleventh book, pointing 
out the cosmical risings and settings of the constellations, 
which marked the successive seasons for various labours, 
and other practical points of rustic astronomy. The 
tenth book, the subject of which is horticulture, is in 
hexameters. It never rises quite to the height of poetry : 
it is rather metrical prose, characterized, like the rest of 
his work, by fluency, and also expressed in correct versi- 
fication. The reason which he gives for this variation 
from his plan is, that it is intended as supplementary to 
the Georgics of Virgil, and that in so doing he is follow- 
ing the great poet's own recommendations. In his pre- 
face to his friend Silvinus he thus expresses his intention : 
— " Postulatio tua pervicit ut poeticis numeris explerem 
Greorgici carminis omissas partes, quas tamen et ipse 
Virgilius significaverat posteris se memorandas relin- 
quere." 

Sextus Julius Frontinus. 

Sex. Jul. Frontinus deserves a place amongst Eoman 
classical writers as the author of two works, both of 
which are still extant. The first, entitled " Stratagema- 
ticon, Libri iv.," was a treatise on military tactics. The 
form in which he has enunciated his doctrines is that of 
precepts and anecdotes of celebrated military commanders. 
In this way the necessary preparations for a battle, the 
stratagems resorted to in fighting, the rules for con- 
ducting sieges, and the means of maintaining discipline 
in an army, are explained and illustrated in a straight- 
forward and soldierlike style. 

As the object which he had in view in adducing his 
anecdotes is scientific illustration rather than historic truth, 
he is not very particular as to the sources from which 
his examples are derived. His work is interesting, how- 
ever, to the antiquarian, if not of practical utility to the 
tactician, as displaying the theory and practice of ancient 



548 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

warfare. This subject had in early times been treated 
of by Cato and Cincius, and afterwards by Hyginus in a 
treatise on Field Fortification {de Castrametatione), and 
also in the epitome of Vegetius. 

His other work, which has descended to modern times 
in a perfect state, is a descriptive architectural treatise, 
in two books, on those wonderful monuments of Roman 
art, the aqueducts. But besides these, fragments remain 
of other works, which assign Frontinus an important 
place in the estimation of the student of Roman history. 
These are treatises on surveying, and the laws and cus- 
toms relating to landed property. They were partly of 
a scientific, partly of a jurisprudential character, and are 
to be found amongst the works of the Agri-mensores, or 
Rei Agrarice Scriptores. The difficulty and obscurity of 
everything connected with Roman agrarian institutions 
is well known ; and every fragment relating to them is 
valuable, because of the probability of its throwing light 
upon so important a subject. Niebuhr 1 saw their value, 
and pronounced that "the fragments of Frontinus were 
the only work amongst the Agri-mensores which can be 
counted a part of classical literature, or which was com- 
posed with any legal knowledge." These fragments, 
therefore, may be taken as a favourable specimen of this 
class of writers ; amongst whom were Siculus Flaccus, 
Argenius Urbicus, and Hyginus (Grrammaticus). 

Of the life of Frontinus himself very few facts are 
known. He was city praetor in the reign of Vespasian, 2 
and succeeded Cerealis as governor of Britain. He made 
a successful campaign against the Silures 3 (S. Wales), and 
was succeeded by Agricola, a.d. 78. He was subse- 
quently curator aquarum* an office which probably sug- 
gested the composition of his practical manual on 



5 See Smith's Diet, of Antiq. s. v. 2 a. d. 70. 

3 Tac. Agric. 4 De Ag. I. 



CONCLUSION OF THE HISTORY. 549 

aqueducts. He also had a seat in the college of augurs, 
in which, after his death, 1 he was succeeded hy the 
younger Pliny. 

With this third epoch a history of Eoman classical 
literature comes to a close. In the silver age taste had 
gradually but surely declined ; and although the Eoman 
language and literature shone forth for a time with 
classic radiance in the writings of Persius, Juvenal, 
Quintilian, Tacitus, and the Plinies, nothing could arrest 
its fall. In vain emperors endeavoured to encourage 
learning by pecuniary rewards and salaried professor- 
ships : it languished together with the death of consti- 
tutional freedom, the extinction of patriotism, and the 
decay of the national spirit. Poetry had become de- 
clamation. History had degenerated either into fulsome 
panegyric, or the fleshless skeletons of epitomes ; and at 
length Eomans seemed to disdain the use of their native 
tongue — that tongue which laborious pains had brought 
to such a height of polish and perfection, and wrote in 
Greek, as they had in the infancy of the national litera- 
ture, when Latin was too rude and imperfect to embody 
the ideas which they had derived from their Greek 
instructors. 

The emperor Hadrian resided long at Athens, and 
became imbued with a taste and admiration for Greek ; 
and thus the literature of Eome became Hellenized. 
From this epoch the term Classical can no longer be 
applied to it, for it did not retain its purity. To Greek 
influence succeeded the still more corrupting one of 
foreign nations. Even with the death of Nerva the 
uninterrupted succession of emperors of Eoman or Italian 
birth ceased. Trajan himself was a Spaniard ; and after 
him not only barbarians of every European race, but even 



About a. d. 106. 



550 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 

Orientals and Africans, were invested with the imperial 
purple. The empire also over which they ruled was an 
unwieldy mass of heterogeneous materials. The literary 
influence of the capital was not felt in the distant portions 
of the Roman dominions. Schools were established in 
the very heart of nations just emerging from barbarism 
— at Burdegala (Bourdeaux), Lugdunum (Lyons), and 
Augusta Trevirorum (Treves) ; and, although the bless- 
ings of civilization and intellectual culture were thus 
distributed far and wide, still literary taste, as it filtered 
through the minds of foreigners, became corrupted, and 
the language of the imperial city, exposed to the infec- 
tious contact of barbarous idioms, lost its purity. 1 

The Latin authors of this period were numerous, and 
many of them were Christians ; but few had taste to 
appreciate and imitate the literature of the Augustan age. 
The brightest stars which illuminated the darkness were 
A. Grellius, L. Apuleius, T. Petronius Arbiter, the learned 
author of the Saturnalia ; the Christian ethical philo- 
sopher L. Ccelius Lactantius; and that poet, in whom 
the graceful imagination of classical antiquity seems to 
have revived, the flattering and courtly Claudian. 



Macrobius. 



( 551 ) 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



B.C. 


A.U.C. 


753-510 


1-244 


449 


305 


390 
364 


364 

390 


326-304 
280 


428-450 
474 


264 


490 


260 


494 


241 


513 


240 
239 
235 


514 
515 
519 


227 


527 


219 


535 


204 


550 


201 


553 


195 


559 


186 


568 



LITERARY CHRONOLOGY. 



CIVIL CHRONOLOGY. 



First Era. 

Chant of the Arvalian Brother- 
hood ; Saturnian measure ; 
Salian hymn ; Pontifical an- 
nals ; Libri Lintei. 

Laws of the Twelve Tables ; the 
so-called Leges Regise. 

Stage-players sent for from 

Etruria. 
The Tiburtine inscription 
Appius Claudius Ccecus ; Ti. 

Coruncanius. 



The Columna Rostrata ; epi- 
taphs on the Scipios. 



Livius Andronicus. 

Birth of Ennius. 

Cnseus Naevius flourished 



Birth of Plautus ; funeral ora- 
tion of Q. Metellus. 

Q. Fabius Pictor ; L. Cincius 
Alimentus ; birth of Pacuvius. 

Ennius brought to Pome ; Corn. 
Cethegus ; P. Licinius Crassus. 

Speech of Fabius Cunctator ; 
Sextus iElius Catus. 

M. Porcius Cato consul ; Licinius 
Tegula. 

Senatus-consultum respecting 
the Bacchanals. 



Regal period. 



The Decemvirs deposed. 

Rome taken by Gauls. 
The year following the 

death of Camillus. 
Second Samnite War. 
The year following the 

arrival of Pyrrhus . 
Commencement of first 

Punic war. 
Fifth year of the first 

Punic war. 
Conclusion of the first 

Punic war. 



The Temple of Janus 
closed for the second 
time. 



Conclusion 
Punic war. 



of second 



The year following the 
condemnation of L. 
Scipio. 



552 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



B.C. 


A.U.C. 


LITERARY CHRONOLOGY. 


CIVIL CHRONOLOGY. 


184 


570 


Csecilius Statius flourished ; he 


Censorship of M. Porcius 






died A.u.c. 586 ; death of 


Cato. 






Plautus. 




183 


571 


- - - 


Deaths of Hannibal and 
Scipio Africanus. 


181 


573 


The (so-called) books of Numa 
found. 




179 


575 


- 


Accession of Perseus. 


170 


584 


Attius born. 




168 


586 


- 


Defeat of Perseus at 
Pydna, 


166 


588 


Terence exhibits the Andrian ; 
Sp. Carvilius; C. Sulpicius 
Gallus ; Lavinius Luscius ; T. 
Manlius Torquatus. 




155 


599 


The three Attic philosophers 
visit Rome ; C. Acilius Gla- 
brio ; Crates Mallotes. 




154 


600 


M. Pacuvius ; Scipio iEmilianus ; 
Laelius. 




150 


604 


L. Afranius ; S. Sulpicius Gal- 

ba. 
Birth of C. Lucilius ; Cassius 




148 


606 


Second year of the third 






Hemina; A. Postumius Al- 


Punic war. 






binus. 




146 


608 


. . . 


End of third Punic war; 
Carthage and Corinth 
taken. 


138 


616 


L. Attius flourished ; Q. F. M. 
Servilianus ; C. Fannius ; 
Vennonius ; C. Sempronius 
Tuditanus. 


Dec. Jun. Brutus consul. 


133 


621 


M. Junius Brutus; P. Mucius 


Murder of Tib. Gracchus ; 






Scsevola; L. Cselius Anti- 


Numantia taken. 






pater ; Cn. S. and A. Gellii ; 








L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi ; 








Papirius Carbo ; Lepidus 








Porcina ; iElius Tubero. 




129 


625 


_ 


Death of Scipio iEmili- 
anus, aet. 56. 


123 


631 


C. Sempronius Gracchus ; Sex- 
tos Turpilius ; C. Lucilius 
flourished ; Lsevius (1) ; C. 














Junius Gracchanus ; M. Julius 








Pennus. 




119 


635 


L. Licinius Crassus acouses 
Carbo ; M. Antonius (born 
B.C. 144). 




113 


641 


_ 


War begun with the Cim- 

bri. 
First year of Jugurthine 


111 


643 


. 








war. 



CIIRONOLOCICAL TABLE. 



553 




LITERARY CHRONOLOGY. 



CIVIL CHRONOLOGY. 



109 



645 



648 
654 
659 



663 

664 



667 

668 
670 

672 

676 
678 

680 



682 
683 
684 

687 



689 
691 



693 
694 
695 



Publius Sempronius Asellio ; 

M. JEmiliufl Scaurus ; P. 

Rutilius Rufus ; Q. Lutatius 

Catulus. 
Birth of Cicero - 
L. iElius Stilo - 
Cotta ; the Sulpicii ; Horten- 

sius ; Q. Mucius Scaovola ; 

Lucretius born. 
Death of the orator Crassus. 
C. Licinius Macer ; Q. Claudius 

Quadrigarius ; Q. Valerius 

Antias ; L. Lucullus ; Sulla ; 

Plotius Gallus. 
M. Antonius killed; Catullus 

born. 
Birth of SaUust - - - - 
Attius probably died about this 

time, and Latin acting tragedy 

disappeared ; L. Cornelius 

Sisenna. 
Births of Varro Atacinus and 

Licinius Calvus Valerius Cato. 
Commencement of Sallust's 

history. 
Birth of Asinius Pollio. 



Second Era. 

Roman prose literature arrived 
at its greatest perfection ; 
Cicero thirty-two years of 



Cicero accuses 

born. 
C. Aquilius Gallus ; C 

tins ; Sext. Papirius 

cilius Balbus. 
Birth of Horace 



Vcrres ; Virgil 



Juven- 
L. Lu- 



Pomponius Atticus ; M. Teren- 
tius Varro Reatinus ; L. Luc- 
ceius ; Nigidius Figulus ; Or- 
bilius came to Rome in the 
fiftieth year of his age (Suet. 
de 111. Gram. 9) ; Q. Corni- 
ficius. 

Oration for Archias - 

Birth of T. Livius. 



Birth of Cn. Pompeius. 
Birth of Julius Caesar. 



Commencement of the 
Social war. 



Massacres by Cinna and 

Marius. 
Death of Marius. 



Sulla's proscription, 
Death of Sulla. 



Third Mithridatic war be- 
gan. 

Murder of Sertorius. 
Defeat of Spartacus. 



Pompey entrusted with 
the war against the 
Pirates. 

First Catilinarian con- 
spiracy. 

Consulship of Cicero ; 
birth of Augustus ; Je- 
rusalem taken by Pom- 

pey- 



Acquittal of Clodius. 
First triumvirate. 



2 o 



554 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



B.C. 


A.U.C 


LITERARY CHRONOLOGY. 


CIVIL CHRONOLOGY. 


55 


699 


- 


Caesar's first invasion of 
Britain. 


54 


700 


Julius Caesar ; Lucretius Cams ; 


Caesar's second invasion 






C. Val. Catullus ; iEsopus ; 


of Britain. 






Q. Eoscius ; Licinius Calvus ; 








Helvius Ciuna ; Ticida ; Biba- 


_ 






culus ; Varro Atacinus ; Cor- 








nelius Nepos ; A. Hirtius ; C. 
Oppius ; S. Sulpicius Rufus. 










52 


702 


Death of Lucretius. 




49 


705 


D. Laberius ; C. Matius ; P. 
Syrus. 


J. Caesar appointed Dicta- 
tor. 
Battle of Pharsalia ; mur- 


48 


706 








der of Pompey. 


46 


708 


— — — 


Caesar reforms the calen- 
dar. 


44 


710 


C. Sallustius Crispus ; Atteius 
Philologus ; Asinius Pollio. 


Murder of J. Caesar. 


43 


711 


Death of Cicero ; Valgius Rufus ; 
birth of Ovid ; death of La- 
berius. 


Second triumvirate formed. 


42 


712 


Horace at Philippi. 




40 


714 


_ 


Treaty of Brundusium. 


34 


720 


Death of Sallust. 




32 


722 


Death of Atticus - 


War declared against An- 
tony. 
Battle of Actium. 


31 


723 


Virgilius Maro (born B.C. 70) ; 






Maecenas ; Horatius Flaccus ; 








L. Varius ; Albius Tibullus ; 


• 






Cornelius Gallus ; Plotius 








Tucca ; Bathyllus ; Pylades ; 








Trogus Pompeius. 




29 


725 




The three triumphs of 
Octavius ; temple of 
Janus closed. 


28 


72G 


Palatine library founded ; death 
of Varro. 




27 


727 


- - - 


Octavius receives the title 
of Augustus. 


25 


729 


J. Hyginus ; S. Aurelius Proper- 
tius ; iEinilius Macer ; Ovidius 
Naso ; Gratius Faliscus ; Pedo 
Albinovanus ; A. Sabinus ; T. 
Livius ; Ateius Capito ; Vi- 
truvius ; Q. Csecilius Epirota. 




19 


735 


Death of Virgil. 




18 


734 


Death of Tibullus. 




17 


737 


Carmen seculare of Horatius ; 
Porcius Latro. 


Ludi saeculares. 


15 


739 


_ 


Tiberius and Drusus con- 
quer the Vindelici. 


9 


745 


History of Livy terminates. 





CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



5&0 



B.C. 


A.U.C. 


LITERARY CHRONOLOGY. 


CIVIL CHRONOLOGY. 


8 


746 


Death of Horace - 


The month Sextilis named 
Augustus. 


4 


750 


— — — 


Birth of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 


AJ). 








4 


758 


Death of Asinius Pollio. 




9 


763 


Exile of Ovid - - - - 


Defeat of Quintilius 
Varus. 


14 


767 


Third Era. 


Death of Augustus. 


16 


769 


T. Phsedras ----- 


Sejanus the imperial fa- 
vourite. 


18 


771 


C. Asinius G alius ; deaths of 
Ovid and Livy ; Valerius 
Maximus. 




23 


776 


Birth of C. Plinius Secundus - 


Murder of Drusus. 


25 


778 


Birth of Silius Italicus ; death 
of Cremutius Cordus ; M. 
Annseus Seneca ; A. Cornelius 
Celsus,; Arellius Fuscus ; 
Valerius Maximus. 




30 


783 


Velleius Paterculus writes his 
history. 




31 


784 


_ 


Fall of Sejanus. 


34 


787 


A. Persius Flaccus born. 




37 


790 


_ 


Death of Tiberius. 


40 


793 


Lucan brought to Rome. 




41 


794 


Exile of Seneca - 


Caligula assassinated ; 
Claudius emperor. 


43 


796 


Birth of Martial ; Pomponius 


Expedition of Claudius to 






Mela ; L. Junius Columella ; 


Britain. 






Remmius Fannius Palseinon. 




49 


802 


Recall of Seneca. 




54 


807 


L. Annceus Seneca ; M. Annseus 
Lucanus ; Cornutus ; Persius ; 
Caesius Bassus ; C. Sihus 
Italicus ; Q. Curtius Rufus. 


Accession of Nero. 


59 


812 


> 


Murder of Agrippiua. 


61 


814 


Pliny the Younger born - 


Boadicea conquered by 
Suetonius Paullinus. 


62 


815 


Death of Persius. 




65 


818 


Deaths of Seneca and Lucan. 




66 


819 


Martial came to Rome. 




69 


822 


- 


Accession of Vespasian .- 


70 


823 


Saleius Bassus ; C. Valerius 
Flaccus. 


Jerusalem taken by Titus , 


74 


8L'7 


The dialogue J)e Oratoribus sup- 
posed to have been written. 




77 


830 


C. Plinius Secundus Major flou- 
rished. 





556 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



A.D. 


A.U.C. 


LITEEAEY CHEONOLOGY. 


CIVIL CHEONOLOGY. 


78 


831 


- 


Agricola Governor of 
Britain. 


79 


832 


Death of Pliny the Elder - - 


Destruction of Hercu- 
laneum and Pompeii. 


80 


833 


_ 


The Coliseum built. 


81 


834 


_ 


Accession of Domitian. 


90 


843 


M. F. Quintilianus ; the Philo- 
sophers expelled by Domi- 
tian ; Papinius Statius ; Mar- 
tialis. 




93 


846 


Death of Agricola. 


96 


849 


_ 


Assassination of Domitian. 


98 


851 


C. Cornelius Tacitus ; C. Plinius 
Minor ; Julius Frontinus, 
Suetonius Tranquillus ; An- 
naeus Floras ; Julius Obse- 
quens ; D. Junius Juvenalis. 


Accession of Trajan. 


104 


857 


Pliny's letter respecting the 
Christians. 


- 


117 


870 


_ 


Accession of Hadrian. 


138 


891 


S. Pomponius ; Gaius 


Accession of Antoninus 
Pius. 


161 
! 


914 


L. Appuleius ; Minucius Felix ; 
Tertullian. 


Accession of M. Aurelius. 



INDEX. 



Abruzzi (Peligni), Sulmo, town of the, j 
313. 

'Academics' (the), philosophical work of 
Cicero, 357. 

Academy, the New, principles of adopted j 
in Rome, 354. Why congenial to 
Cicero, 355. 

' Achilleid,' unfinished epic of Pp. Sta- 
tius, 472. 

Acilius, L., his commentaries on twelve 
tables, 203. 

1 Actor,' the, Roman play of Massinger 
—plot of, 216. 

Actors, the Atellan, a class — privileges 
of, 47. Different from historians, 48. 

, social position of — payment of, 

208. 

1 Ad Familiares,' letters of Cicero — their 
character and style, 361. 

'Addictus,' comedy of Plautus — not 
extant, 89. 

Addison, criticisms of, on ' Georgics ' of 
Virgil, 253. His translation from 
Silius Italicus, 465. 

'Adelphi,' the, play of Terence, when 
performed — plot of, 118. Lax mo- 
rality of — redeeming examples, 119. 
Furnishes plots for Moliere, Shad- 
well, and Garrick, 120. 

iElius, Q., taught grammar to Tullii and 
Aculei, 331. 

'iEneid,' poem of Virgil, when com- 
menced — unfinished — by whom 
edited— idea and plan of, 257. Bor- 
rowed from Homer, 258. Story of 
taken from old traditional writers, 

259. Plagiarisms in — character of, 

260. Political object of, 261. Imi- 
tative passages in, 262. Popularity 
of, 263. Opinions of Niebuhr ac- 
counted for, 264. 



'iEneadae,' historical play of Atticus, 
128-139. 

iEolii, language of, derivative dialect of 
the Pelasgi, 21. 

JErarii, class of, 87. 

iEsop, fables of, translated, and manner 
of, adopted by Phcedrus, 411. Supe- 
riority of, 422. 

iEsopus, the actor — his wealth — friend 
of Cicero — enthusiasm of audience 
for, 208. 

Afer, Domitius, heard plead by Quin- 
tilian, 534. 

Afer, Terentius, language of, 7. Ap- 
peals to Ennius in defence of pla- 
giarism, 75. Examples of elision from 
works of, 84, 85. His comic metres, 
how reducible — example from An- 
dria, 86. A slave — early history 
obscure— of African origin — Conjec- 
tures respecting, 101. Obtained 
freedom early — "The Andrian' his 
first essay — its reception by C. Statius 
— story doubtful — date of first repre- 
sentation — his improvement of Latin 
language — patronized by no bility, 102. 
Purity of his style a consequence of 
intercourse with them — his morality 
— truthfulness, 103. Compared with 
English dramists, 104. Assisted in 
his compositions — anecdote of C. 
Nepos on this point, 105. Contra- 
dicted by Terence — his poverty — 
Licinius' account of — not correct — 
death uncertain — daughter married, 
106. Number of comedies — Palli- 
ata3 — his works : ' The Andrian,' 107 ; 
'Eunuchus,' 109; ' Heautontimoru- 
menos,' 111; 'Phorcnio,' 114; ' He- 
cyra,' 115; 'Adelphi,' 118. Com- 
pared with Plautus, secondary in 



558 



INDEX. 



humour, superior in sentiment, 120. 
Abounds in soliloquies — good story- 
teller — morality proverbial, 121. Con- 
temporary with Cato, 158. 

Afranius, L„ comic poet — contempo- 
rary of Terence— comedies of lowest 
class — skilful adapter from the Greek 
— his style — remains of works, 121. 

African war, book on, to whom attri- 
buted, 378. 

' Agricola,' the, of Tacitus, when pub- 
lished, 487. A panegyric, 488. 

, C. J., Tacitus marries daughter 

of, 486. His death — government of 
Britain, 489. Praise of, 497. 

Agriculture, treatise on, by Varro, 366. 

Agri-mensores, Kei Agr-arige Scriptores, 
their works, 548. 

Agrippina procures recal of Seneca — 
appoints him tutor to Nero, 509. 

Albinovanus, C. Pedo, his anecdote of 
Ovid — his rank — an epic poet, 315. 
Ovid's epistles fromPontus addressed 
to — epithet for, 325. His epigrams, 
elegies, and epic fragments, 326. 

Albinus, A. Posthumus — wrote history 
of Kome in Greek — Cicero's opinion 
of — his puerilities, 171. 

' Alcibiades,' the, of Plato — copied by 
Persius, 439-441. 

Alexander the Great, biography of, by 
Q. Curtius, a romance, 504. Copied 
from Clitarchus — its length — last 
books of, by whom supplied, 505. 

Alexandrine war, book on — to whom 
attributed, 378. 

Alimentus, L. Cincius, contemporary 
with Fabius — annalist of second Pu- 
nic war — praetor ; legatus — taken pri- 
soner by Hannibal — wrote in Greek 
— Livy's appeal to him — original 
investigations, 155. Details of pas- 
sage across Alps communicated by 
Hannibal to — appealed to by Livy 
on this point — chronology reconciled 
by Niebuhr, 156. 

Alphabet, the Etruscan, found on cup 
at Bomarzo, 19. 

, the Latin, its arrangement, 28. 

Value of consonants in — compared 
with the Greek, 29. Interchanges 
in, 30. Vowels and diphthongs in, 
31. Letters syncopated in Augustan 
age, 86. 

Alpis Cottia, Mount Genevre — pass by 
which Hannibal crossed Alps accord- 
ing to Livy — chosen by Caesar, 402. 

Graia, Little St, Bernard - 



by which Hannibal crossed Alps — 
why so named, 402. 

Ambiguity, grammatical work on, by 
elder Pliny, 516. 

Ambrose, St., believed the sibyls in- 
spired, 249. 

Amiternum, Sallust born at, 385. 

' Amores,' the poems of Ovid — collec- 
tion of elegies to Corinna — when 
written — character of, 320. 

' Amphitruo,' comedy of Plautus — 
adopted from Greek — plot of — imi- 
tated by Moliere and Dryden, 92. 

Anacrusis, not essential to Saturnine 
verse, 36. 

'Andrian,' the comedy of Terence — - 
when Exhibited — accompaniment to 
— success of — character of — narra- 
tive praised by Cicero — imitated by 
Steele, 108. 

Andronicus, Livius, alters Satura, 49. 
His birth and education — a slave — 
statement of Attius respecting, con- 
travened by Cicero, 49. Niebuhr's 
opinion of — a tutor — emancipated — 
his translation of Odyssey — Niebuhr's 
idea respecting, 51. Tragedies, prin- 
cipal works of — introduces new era 
in literature — his method — small re- 
mains of works collected by Her- 
mann, 52. Character of translation 
of Odyssey — criticism of classical 
authors prejudiced against — Cicero's 
opinion of — his alteration of Fescen- 
nine verses, 53. Elevates the drama, 
55. His dramas, when first exhibited 
— titles of tragedies extant, adapt- 
ations from Greek — spectacle of, 
gorgeous, 55, 56. Probably author of 
comedies — one quoted by Festus, 56. 

Andronicus, Livius, placed by Sueto- 
nius among the Grammarians, 205. 

, M. P., the grammarian — his ori- 
gin, 206. 

' Annales Maximi,' account of, by Ser- 
vius, 43. Books of, 44. 

Annalists, Greek and Roman, compared, 
152. 

' Annals,' the, epic poem of Ennius, 72. 
Account of, 73. Quoted by Cicero 
and Virgil, 74. 

of Livy — how much extant, 395. 

Object and character of, 396. Charm 
of narrative in — state of Rome, when 
written — fitness of Livy for task, 397. 
Moral accuracy, 398, Sympathy 
shown in, 399. * Sources of, 400. 

of Tacitus, why so called — extent 



INDEX. 



559 



and date of — object and character of, 
45)4. Orations in, 496. 

Annals of Vario, not used by Li vy, 401. 

Aiitias, Q. Valerius, historian — his pre- 
tensions and accuracy — falsehood of 
— Livy's opinion of, 176. 

Anticata, mark of Caesar on Latin lan- 
guage, 377. 

1 Anticatones,' answers to Cicero's pane- 
gyric on Cato — by whom written, 38 1 . 

Antiochus, the academic — tutor of 
Varro Reatinus, 365. 

'Antiopa,' tragedy of Pacuvius — frag- 
ment of — Criticised by Persius, 136. 

Antipater, L. Caslius, freedman — orator 
and jurist — his history — fragments 
of preserved — Quoted by Cicero and 
Livy, 172. Extracts from transcribed 
"by Lucullus, 370. 

* Antiquitates Eerum Humanarum' — 
chronological work of Varro Reatinus 
— as also ' Antiquitates Rerum Divi- 
narum '— quoted by St. Augustine, 
366. 

Antonius, C, competitor for consul- 
ship with Cicero — accused by Caesar, 
373. 

, M., orator, 188. Cicero's praise 

of — his Greek education — speeches, 
why unpublished — passages of, pre- 
served by Cicero, 189. Death of, 
190. Represented as Turnus in 
iEneid, 262. His self-indulgence, 
277. Ships burnt by Gallus, 306. 
Hatred of Cicero, 339. Character 
exposed in philippics of Cicero, 348, 
349. 

Apocolocyntosis, satire of Seneca on 
death of Claudius, 513. 

Apollinaris, epigram of Martial on send- 
ing a rose to, 479. 

, Sidonius, bishop of Clermont, his 

distinction of the Senecas, 427. 
' Apophthegmata,' collection of sayings 
by J. Caesar, 382. 

Apollodoms, Epidicazomene of — Phor- 

mio of Terence translated from, 114. 

Appian takes Fabius Pictor as his 

authority, 154. 
Apuleius, L., preserves fragment of 
Laevius, writer in third period of 
Roman literature, 550. 
Aquinas, Thomas, born at same place 

as Juvenal, 445. 
Aratus, phaenomena of, supplied Virgil 
with astronomy of Georgics, 255. 
Translated by Domitian — popularity 
of his works, see note, 472. 



Arbiter, T. Petronius, author of * Satur- 
nalia,' 550. 
'ArchfiBologia,' of Dionysius, not used 

by Livy, 401. 
Archias, poet, taught Tullii rules of 
versification, 331. Cicero's oration 
for— character of — its genuineness, 
345. Lucullus, friend of, 370. 
Archimedes, tomb of, discovered by 

Cicero, 333. 
Archistratus, Phagetica of, translated 

by Ennius, 76. 
Arethusato Lycotas, first elegiac epistle, 

311. 
'Argonautica,' of Apollonius, translated 
by Varro Attacinus — praised by 
Quintilian, 236. 

, poem of C. V. Flaccus addressed 

to Vespasian — continued by J. B. 
Pius — criticisms on — compared with 
works of Virgil, 467. 
Aristaeus, story of, why inserted in 

fourth Georgic of Virgil, 306. 
Aristotle, his rhetoric — division of — 

followed by Quintilian, 537, 538. 
Arpinum, birth-place of Marius — 
Cicero born near— education of, see 
note 330. 
' Ars Poetica,' poem of Horace — ad- 
dressed to Piso, 290. 
' Art of Love,' poem of Ovid — its cha- 
racter, 316. 
' Art of using the javelins on horseback 

— treatise of elder Pliny, 516. 
1 Arvales Fratres,' chant of — when 
found — date of — given by Orellius — 
how sung, 23. 
Asellio, P. Sempronius, his memoir of 
Numantian war — tribunal under S. 
Africanus, 173. 
1 Asinaria,' comedy of Plautus — revolt- 
ing state of morals depicted in, 92. 
Asinius, cognomen of Plautus, whence 

derived, 88. 
'Asotus,' work of Ennius, mentioned 

by Varro and Festus, 76. 
Aspirate, in Latin, represents Greek X, 

29. 
Astura, marine villa of Cicero at, 338. 
Atellanae Fabulae, see Fabulae. 
Athens, Horace studies at, 271. Cicero 

studies at, 332. 
Atilius, M., dramatist, attributes Greek 
origin to Saturnine verse, 32. Cicero's 
opinion of — examples, 121, 122. 
Title of one comedy of — history un- 
known, 122. His tragedies — trans- 
lations from Sophocles, 125. 



560 



INDEX, 



Attius, L., Roman tragic poet — almost 
contemporary with Pacuvius — inti- 
macy between them — story of, related 
by A. Gellius — pride of, related by 
Valerius Maximus, 138. Friend of 
D. Brutus — private history little 
known — tragedies numerous — three 
Pretextatae : 'iEneadae,' 'Deems,' and 
'Marcellus — 'Trachiniae' and 'Phce- 
nissae,' translations from Greek — 
character of his writings — of his lan- 
guage — quoted by Cicero and Yarro, 
139. Not founder of Tragediae Prae- 
textatae, 140. His metres — his other 
works quoted by Nonius and A. 
Gellius — his age and death — best 
writer of acting tragedy, 141. State 
of Rome not suitable to development 
of tragic writing, 142. Change in 
form of theatres, 143. 

Atticus,J., writes ' De Re Rustica,' 168. 

, T. Pomponius, Cicero's friendship 

for, 332. Speaker in 'Brutus' of 
Cicero, his two books on Glory ad- 
dressed to Cicero, 357. Life of, by 
C. Nepos, 371. 

, friend of C. Nepos — work ad- 
dressed to, 371. 

'Atreus,' tragedy of Attius — read to 
Pacuvius, 138. 

' Atys,' dithyrambic poem of Catullus, 
229. 

Aventine Hill, dwelling of Ennius on, 
70. 

Aufidius, the river, Horace born on 
banks of, 268. 

Augurs, college of, Cicero obtains seat 
in, 336. 

Augusta Trevirorum (Treves), school 
established at, 550. 

Augustine, St., believes the Sibyls in- 
spired, 250. Alludes to third satire 
of Persius, 440. 

Augustus, C. J. C. Octavianus, Imp., 
second period of Roman literature 
ends with death of, 39. His age 
called the Golden, 40. Friendship of, 
for C. Matius, 213. Pantomine first 
introduced in time of — invention of, 
erroneously attributed to him by 
Suidas, 214. Object of ^Eneid to in- 
crease his popularity — typified in it 
under character of iEneas, 261. His 
intimacy with Maecenas — Dion Cas- 
sius' account of, 299. Ridicules 
language of — how influenced by, 301, 
303. Cause of offence against Ovid 
uncertain — cause of cruelty in his 



old age, 318. Founds Octavian and 
Palatine libraries, 365. Patron of 
Vitruvius Pollio, 407. His epigram, 
473. Pronounces eulogium on grand- 
mother when twelve years old, 540. 

'Aulularia,' comedy of Plautus— amus- 
ing plot of, 92. Suggests L'Avare of 
Molidre — attempts made to supply 
lost scenes in, 93. 

Ausonius, his account of C. Nepos, 370. 

Auspiciorum, Libri. work of, J. Caesar 
on augury, 375. 

Bacchanals, senatus-consultum re- 
specting, found at Tivoli — preserved 
at Vienna — language of, 28. 

'Bacchides/ comedy of Plautus — plot 
of, 93. 

Bagrada, serpent at — story of, related by 
Tubero, 178. 

Baiae, baths of, favourite resort of Ho- 
race, 274. 

Balbus, L. Lucilius, jurist — pupil of 
C. M. Sctevola, 205. 

Bansae, word giving name to Bantine 
table, 17. 

Bantine table principal monument of 
Sabello-Oscan language — discovered 
1793 — supposed to refer to Bantiae — 
how interpreted — language of — 
copied by Orellius and Donaldson, 17. 

Bards, songs of, at early Roman ban- 
quets, 140. 

Barthius, C, his example of style of S. 
Italicus, 465. 

Basilica at Colonia, Julia Fanestris, 
built by Vitruvius Pollio, 408. 

Bassus, Aufidius, wrote history of Ger- 
man and civil wars — continued by 
Pliny — fragments preserved by Se- 
neca — his death — works preserved 
by daughter, 482. See Pliny, 516. 

, Caesius, friend of Propertius, 310. 

Guest of Horace, 316. Satires of 
Persius addressed to, 436-441. 

Bathyllus, actor in pantomime, 215. 

Bedriacum, battle of — Otho defeated at, 
by Vitellius — Suetonius Lenis, tri- 
bunus at, 499. 

' Bellum Catilinarium,' work of Sallust 
— speeches of Caesar and Cato in — 
speech of Memmius, as delivered, 387. 
When written, 388 — depraved state 
of society depicted in, 390. 

' Bellum Sequanicurn,' heroic poem of 
Varro Attacinus, 236. 

Bentley, his opinion on origin of Sa- 
turnian verse, 33. His chronological 



INDEX. 



561 



arrangement of works of Horace, 298. 
Opinion respecting M. Manilius, 327. 

Bibaculus Furius, satirist— his epic 
provokes criticism of Horace, 235. 

Bilbilis, Spanish town in province of 
Tarragon, Martial born at, 474. Fa- 
mous for manufactures of iron and 
steel, 475. 

Blair, Cicero's oration for Cluentius, 
analyzed by, 345. 

Bomarzo, Etruscan alphabet found at, 
19. 

Brueys, his play, 'Le Muet,' imitated 
from 'Eunuchus' of Terence, 111. 

Brundisium, journey of Maecenas to — 
Virgil dies at, 241. Cicero's night 
to, 335. 

' Brutus,' historical play of Attius — 
written at suggestion of Decirnus — 
plot of — passages quoted by Cicero 
only remain, 139. 

, Decirnus, consul, friend of Attius. 

, M. Junius, jurist — father ambas- 
sador to Persius — his books on civil 
law, 203. Model of ideal perfection 
in oratory to Cicero, 350. Speaker in 
rhetorical work of same name, 350. 

, rhetorical work of Cicero — second 

of series, 349. Dramatis personee 
and scene of, 350. 

* Bucolics/ poem of Virgil, 244. Arti- 
ficial, 245. Criticism of Horace on — 
Idylls of Theocritus, models of, 246. 
Subject o$ 247. Fifth, imitated by 
English poets, 247. Sixth, account 
of Epicurean philosophy in — paro- 
died by Gay, 251. 

Burdegala, Bordeaux, school established 
at, 550. 

Burnet, Bishop, recommends tenth Sa- 
tire of Juvenal to his clergy, 449. 



Cacus, legend of, related by Hemina, 
172. 

Cadiz, inhabitant of, comes to Borne, 
see Livy — fact, how expanded by St. 
Jerome, 395. 

Cseoilius, C, father of C. Pluvius, 528. 

Csecina, partisan of Pompey — corre- 
spondent of Cicero, 362. 

Caedicius, tribune — his devotion, 166. 

Csepio, L. Servilius, his Lex Servilia 
defended by Crassus, 191. 

Cresar, C. Julius, dictator — complaint 
of want of ' vis comica ' in Romans, 
78. His treatment of Liberius, 210. 
Ii itimacy with C. Matius, 212. Guest 



of Catullus' father, 227. Attacked 
by Catullus — his clemency, 230. Op- 
poses Cicero for consulship, 333. 
Refuses aid to Cicero, 335. Pardons 
him, 337. Employs Varro Reatinus 
to collect books for national library, 
364. Clemency to Varro — appre- 
ciates his learning — makes him libra- 
rian, 366. His descent, 372. Birth 
— politics — character — civic crown — 
an orator — pleads against Dolabella 
and C. Antonius — goes to Rhodes to 
study rhetoric, 373. Taken by pi- 
rates — ransomed — studies under Mo- 
lon — returns to Rome — speaks for 
party of Lepidus — his funeral ora- 
tions — speech for Catilinarians — why 
unsuccessful, 374. Practical appli- 
cation of literary talents— appointed, 
Pontifex Maximus — his 'Libri Au- 
spiciorum — ' De Astris ' — conse- 
quence of these studies, 375. Ap- 
pointment to Spain — leads to compi- 
lation of Commentaries — tract on 
administration of law— perished ; 
why 1 — contemplates map of Roman 
dominions, 376. Founds library — 
appoints Varro librarian — his letters 
— some extant with those of Cicero 
— orations lost— panegyric on — trea- 
tises — his Commentaries — books sup- 
plemental to : ' De Bello Gallico,' ' De 
Bello Civili ' — by whom written, 377. 
On the African war — on the Spanish 
war — Ephemerides — Bayle's opinion 
respecting, 378 — character of Com- 
mentaries — beauty of language — 
Hirtius' remark upon — Pollio's criti- 
cisms on — how far incorrect — ego- 
tism — cruelty — vanity — compared 
with Xenophon — ' Anticatones ' — re- 
ply to Cicero, 381 — Philologicial work, 
' De Analogia ' — ' Apophthegmata ' — 
poetical works, 'CEdipus' — 'Iter' — as- 
tronomical poem — 'Letters to Op- 
pius,' described by A. Gellius (note), 
382. Character of — philosophy — self- 
reliance — reality — memory, 383. Re- 
stores Sallust to senate, 385. His 
brevity compared with that of Sal- 
lust — his secretary T. Pompeius, 392. 
Crossed Cottian Alps, 402. Livy 
compared with, 403. M. V. Pollio 
serves under, 407. His epigrams, 
473. 
Caesars, the Twelve, biography of, by 
Suetonius — Niebuhr's opinion re- 
specting date of, 500. Krause's 

2p 



562 



INDEX. 



opinion of sources of, 501. Incon- 
sistency in, 502. Character of, 503. 
Caesura, laws of, not understood by 

Ennius, 64. 
Calagurris (Calahorra), birth-place of 

Q.uintilian, 534. 
Caligula, Caius (Imp.), his character, 421. 

His jealousy of Seneca, 509. 
Callimachus, Saturnine verse in writings 
of, 33. Contemporary with Ennius, 
75. Imitated by Tibullus, 311. 
Calvena, C. Matius, why so called — his 
' Mimiambi ' — translates ' Iliad ' — 
work on cookery — enriches Latin 
with new words — friend of Caesar 
and Augustus — his influence — how 
used — loved by Cicero, 213. Mimi- 
ambic poet — correspondent of Cicero, 
362. 
Calvus, C. Licinius, orator and poet — 
fragments of poems only left — Xie- 
buhr's opinion of — poetry similar to 
that of Catullus, 234. 
Canticum, words of both mime and 
pantomime so called — how repeated, 
214. 
Capitol, the, burnt in reign of Vespa- 
sian, 400. 
Capona, Porta, epitaph of L. Scipio 

found' at, 27. 
' Captive,' the, comedy of Plautus — the 

best— plot of, 93. 
Capua, journey of Lucilius to, supplied 
Horace with idea of that to Brun- 
disium, 147. 
Carbo, C, impeached by Crassus, 190. 

, Papirius, orator — colleague of T. 

Gracchus — his character — eloquence, 
186. 
' Carmen Seculare,' poem of Horace — 
its occasion — written at request of 
Emperor, 279. 
Carneades, the academic — comes to 
Eome, 158. Cato banishes Greek 
philosophers on account of uncer- 
tainty of his arguments, 660. 
Carthage, treaty with, preserved — 
translated into Greek by Polybius — 
language of then esteemed archaic, 7. 
Enmity of Cato to, reason for, 162. 
Cams, Lucretius, poem of, marks epoch 
in philosophy and poetry — his origi- 
nality — little known of his life — his 
birth, 218. Philosophy Epicurean — 
raised to equestrian rank — commits 
suicide — his work, ' On the Nature of 
Things,' in six books — imitation of 
Empedocles — epic structure of — epi- 



tome of Epicurean philosophy, 218. 
His language — sublimity — tender- 
ness — compared with Ovid and Vir- 
gil — imitated by Virgil — criticism of 
Cicero, 219. Examples from, 221. 
Plan and structure of poem — Epicu- 
rean doctrines embodied in, 222. In 
what differing from his master, 223. 
Love of nature — physical theory, 224. 
Philosophy, how a remedy for ills — 
morality of — Cicero not just to — fol- 
lower of Epicurus — Virgil's panegyric 
on — Ovid's praise of, 227. 
' Casina,' comedy of Plautus — revolting 

state of manners depicted in, 92. 
Cassius, correspondent of Cicero, 362. 
Cataline, competitor of Cicero for 
consulship, 333. Conspiracy of, 
334. 
' Catilinarians,' orations of Cicero, 347. 
Their subject, success, and conse- 
quences, 348. 
Cato, C. prosecuted by C. A. Pollio, 
363, 

, Licinianus, jurisconsult, 203. 

, M.P., jurisconsult, son of Censor, 

203. 

, M. Porcius, Censor, a friend of 

Cn. ISTaevius, 56. His habit of 
changing letters, 30. Life of, attri- 
buted to C. Nepos — brings Ennius 
from Sardinia — reproaches M. Ful- 
vius Nobilior for patronizing En- 
nius, 67-144. Friend of Ennius, 69. 
Versatility of talent—his ' Origines ' 
— lived in transition period — influ- 
ence of Greek philosophy on Eome — 
contemporary with Xoevius, Plautus, 
and Terence, 157. Important poli- 
tical events during life of Polybius — 
comes to Eome with Achiean host- 
ages — Greek philosophers and critics 
teach in Eome — born at Tusculum 
— bred in country, 158. Served under 
Fabius Maximus — patronized by Va- 
lerius Flaccus — eminence as a pleader 
— qua?stor — sedile — praetor — consul 
— resident in Spain — legatus — civil 
mission to ^Etolia — censor, 159. His 
talents for administration — activity 
— energy — causes dismissal of Greek 
philosophers — sent to Africa — pro- 
secutes Galba — his death — anecdote 
of, preserved by Valerius Maximus, 
note, 160. His character — thoroughly 
Eoman — prejudice against Greeks — 
hard-hearted, 161. Looked back- 
ward — enmity to Scipio — apparent 



INDEX. 



503 



inconsistency o\' — virtue not amiable, 
162. Personal appearance, epigram 
on — moral greatness of— originality 
— determination — his style — charac- 
ter, as given by Livy, 1(!3. His works: 
* The Origines,' 165 ; ' De Re Rnstica,' 
167 ; 'Letters,' 169; 'Orations." 170. 
His character, as drawn by Niebuhr, 
171. 'Orations' of, extant in time 
of Cicero, 182. Prosecutes Sulpicius 
Galba, l>4. Great jurisconsult, 803. 
Correspondent of Cicero, 362. Life 
of, attributed to C. Xepos, 371. His 
influence in decisiou on Catiline 
conspiracy. 374. "Wrote on military 
tactics, 548. 

, Valerius, grammarian and poet, 

206. His poems ' Lydia ' and ' Di- 
ana' — the 'Dirge,' argument of — attri- 
buted to him by J. Scaliger, 235. 

, historical play of, 128. ~*~"~~ 

Catullus, C. Valerius, his family and 
father — education — his licentious- 
ness, 227. Extravagance — goes with 
Memmius to Bithynia, 228. Visits 
grave of brother — specimen of elegiac 
style — returns to Rome — his death — 
his works : ' Elegies,' ' Hymn to Di- 
ana,' ' Atys ' — his popularity, cause 
of, 229. Nationality — disparaged by 
Horace and Quintilian ; w T hy ] — his 
satire, its character — Kiebuhr's 
opinion of, 230. Characteristics of 
his poetry — ' Peleus and Thetis ' 
heroic poem, 231. Example of, 232. 
Estimation of his learning, 233. His 
account of C. Nepos, 370. 
Catulus, P. Lutatius, autobiographer — 
praised by Cicero for his Latinity — 
style of, compared with that of Xeno- 
phon, 174. His epigram, 473. 

, Q., orator, 188. 

Catus, C. iElius, his notes, 202. 

Celer, Nonius, marries daughter of 

Quintilian, 535. 
, Metellus, tribune during Consul- 
ship of Cicero, 334. 
Cellarius, his epithet for style of S. 
Italicus, 465. Supplies lost books 
of Q. Curtius, 504. 
CeLsus, A. Cornelius, writer — ' De Re 
Rustica,' 168. Voluminous writer — 
his work on medicine only extant — 
little known of history — comprehen- 
sive talent, 544. His work compared 
with that of Pliny — scope of work — 
epithet bestowed on, 545. 
Censorirc, Tabula?, account of, 44. 



Censorius, Greek analysis of Saturnian 

verse, 33. 
Cerealis, succeeded by Frontinus in 

government of Britain, 548. 

Cerdo, L. Vitruvius, M. V. Pollio con- 
founded with— evidence respecting, 
406. 

Cervetri, Etruscan city — discoveries 
made there — founded'by Pelasgians — 
maintains connexion with Greeks, 20. 
Pelasgian inscription at, 21. 

Cethegus, Corn., orator — Cicero's ac- 
count of, 181. Ennuis' testimony to 
eloquence of, 182. 

Chares, Oppius, grammarian — teaches 
in Gaul, 206. 

' Chorographia,' poem of V. Atacinus— 
fragment of, preserved by Meyer, 
236. 

Christians, the early, attack pantomimic 
exhibitions, 215. 

Chronicle, the Eusebian, gives date of 
death of Turpihus, 123. 

'Chronicles' of Nepos — abridgment of 
' Universal History,' 371. 

Chronology, Grecian and Italian, He- 
mina attempts to reconcile, 171. 

Chrysogonus, creature of Sulla, his 
enmity against Cicero, 332. 

Cicero, M. Tullius, flourished at end of 
first period of Roman literature, 39. 
Speaks of songs of bards at banquets, 
40. Statements of respecting L. 
Andronicus, 50, 53, 55. Cn. Xaevius, 
57, 60, 61, 62. His appellation for 
Ennius, 68. Quotes from annals of, 
74. Praises elision in Cotta, 84. 
Places Statius at head of comic poets, 
— prefers Ennius in epic, Pacuvius in 
tragedy, 100. Praises funeral scene 
in Andrian, 108. His mention of 
Atilius, 121, 122. Preserves frag- 
ments and title of works of Trabea, 
123. Preserves passages from ' Pro- 
metheus ' of Attius, 134. Praises 
Pacuvius, 136. Preserves passages 
from ' Brutus ' of Attius, 139. Too 
partial to Lucilius, 146. Greek cul- 
tivated in time of, 152. Fabius 
Pictor alluded to by, 154. Age of at 
death, note, 160. Says that Cato 
was forgotten in Augustan age, 172. 
Quotes dreams from Hemirfa, 172. 
Praises Catulus for Latinity, 174. 
Criticises C. L. Macer unfavourably, 
175. His account of Sissenna — 
contemporary with Tubero, 177. 
Praises Cethegus, 182. Account of 

2 p 2 



564 



INDEX. 



Galba, 184 ; of mother of Gracchi 
— epithet ,for T. Gracchus, 187. 
Account of oratory of C. Gracchus, 
188. Hortensius, rival of — yields to 
prejudices against Greek taste — at- 
tributes eloquence of Antony and 
Crassus to Greek cultivation — re- 
futes statement with respect to 
Antony, 189.' Preserves speeches of 
Antony, 191. Defends Crassus — his 
false estimate of, 192. Kemarks on 
Liberius, how answered, 211. Love 
for C. Matius— praises P. Syrus, 213. 
What occupations considered honour- 
able by, 267. His influence on Roman 
literature and language, 328. Con- 
versational philosophy, 329. Influ- 
ence of, permanent — his versatility — 
birth — 'admiration of Marius, note, 
830. His father — birth — brother— 
father removes to Rome — his educa- 
tion — teachers — his poems —studies 
jurisprudence under M. Scaevola, 331. 
Serves one campaign — studies in 
various schools — writes 'De Inven- 
tione Rhetorica' during Marian war — 
his first cause — defence of Roscius — 
weak health — travels to Athens, 
Asia, and Rhodes — studies philoso- 
phy and rhetoric — returns to Rome 
— Hortensius his rival — quaestor, 332. 
Discovers tomb of Archimedes — re- 
turns to Rome — defends Sicilians 
against Verres — aedile — his means of 
celebrating the games — praetor — de- 
fends Cluentius — supports Manilian 
law — espouses popular cause to obtain 
consulship, 333. Consul — the Cati- 
line conspiracy — execution of ring- 
leaders — approved by people, 334. 
Proves guilt of Clodius — his revenge 
— neglected by Caesar — deserted by 
Pompey — 'exile — houses plundered, 
335. Conduct in exile — recalled — 
political tergiversation — appointed 
to College of Augurs — province of 
Cilicia— his -good government — re- 
turns to Rome, 336. His vacillation 
— joins Pompey — pardoned by Caesar, 
337. His public character — domestic 
afflictions — his wives — death of Tul- 
lia — retires to Astura — political 
crisis 1 — his ' Philippics' — popularity — 
second triumvirate — sacrificed by 
Octavius, 338. Flight —betrayal — 
death — cruelty of Antony and 
Ful via— character of, 339. Causes 
of inconsistency — benevolence and 



virtue, 340. Cicero no historian — his 
oratory — its object — compared with 
Attic — to whom addressed — Quin- 
tilian's opinion of — sources of its 
power — his orations, 343. The first 
extant — in defence of P. Quinctius — 
the six Verrian — 'Divinatio,' 344. 
For Fonteius — Cluentius — Archias, 
345. For Caelius — against Piso — for 
Milo, 346. Character of, judicial — 
his political orations — their success, 
347. Instances of— for the Manilian 
law — 'De Provinciis Consularibus ' 
— the ' Catilinarians' — the 'Philippics' 
— his rhetorical works : ' De Inven- 
tions ;' ' Handbook ' spurious ; ' De 
Oratore,' 'Brutus,' 'Orator,' one series, 
349. Short treatises : ' De Partitione 
Oratoria,' 'De Optimo Genere Ora- 
torum,' 'De Corona,' translation of, 
'Topica' — his philosophy, its cha- 
racter, 350. Periods of study, 351. 
Reasons for popularity of Epicu- 
reanism, 354. Personality of his 
philosophy, 355. Opinion of stoic 
philosophy — his religious belief, 356. 
His works on speculative philosophy : 
'The Academics,' 'DeFmibus,' 'Tus- 
culan Disputations,' ' Paradoxes,' 
' Hortensius ;' translations from 
' Timseus,' ' Protagoras,' and Plato ; 
moral philosophy : ' De Officiis,' ' On 
Friendship,' and 'Old Age,' 'On 
Glory,' 358. ' Alleviation of Grief '— 
theological work — political works : 
' De Republica,' ' De Legibus ' — their 
character, 358. Opinions contained 
in, 359. His letters— their style, 
character, and extent, 360. Compli- 
ment of L. Tullus^preserved by 
Pliny — correspondents of Cicero, 362. 
L. Lucceius, friend and correspondent 
of — encomiums upon — why of doubt- 
ful value, 369. Friend of C. Nepos— 
life of, and letters to, by C. Nepos, 
371. Admiration of Livy for, 395. 

, M. Tullius, father of orator — 

Roman knight — his estate, &c, 331. 

, Quintus, younger brother to M. T., 

his poetic talent — poems on Zodiac 
still extant, 331. Travels with Mar- 
cus, 332. 

' Cid,' the, Saturnian verses in poem 
of, 35. 

Cilicia, Cicero governor of — his con- 
duct in, 336. 

Cincius, writer on military tactics, 548. 

Cineas, ambassador of Pyrrhus— his 



INDEX. 



505 



talents— defeated by Appius Clau- 
dius. 181. 

China, G. Helvius — his poem ' Smyrna' 
— praise of, by Virgil and Catullus, 
235. 

'(.'iris,' poem of Virgil — attributed to 
Gallus — subject of, 243. How used 
by Spenser, see note, 244. 

Cistellaria,' comedy of Plautus — plot 
of — uame, whence derived, 93. 

Civil law, corpus of, extant in time of 
Cicero —full of archaic lore, 400. 

Claudian, poet in third period of Roman 
literature — his character, 550. 

Claudius, Appius, calendar set up in 
forum by, 202. First attacks — tech- 
nicalities of Roman law, 376. 

, Appius, Caucus — before Ngevius — 

his speech known to Cicero, 180. 
Account of, 181. Author of moral 
poem, note, 180. 

, Caius (Imp.), answers Asinius 

Gallus, 363. Writes history at recom- 
mendation of Livy, 395. Character 
of, 421. Scribonius physician to, 
546. Funeral oration, satire on, 513. 

, T. Donatus, life of Virgil attri- 
buted to — lived in fifth century — 
Heyne's opinion of, 237. Overlaid 
with fables, 238. 

Cleopatra, represented in 'iEneid' by 
Dido, 262. 

Clitarchus, Greek historian, followed 
by Q. Curtius, 504. 

Clodius, Servius, grammarian — knight, 
206. Introduced by P. Pulcher into 
mysteries of Bona Dea — consequences 
of — guilt proved by Cicero — acquit- 
ted — his revenge, 335. 

Cluentius, defended by Cicero, 333. 
Skill displayed in defence— analysed 
by Blair, 345. 

Coactor, business of, followed by father 
of Horace, 268. 

CoDlio, Cicero's oration for — its humo- 
rous character — contrast to that 
against Piso, 346. 

Coleman, his theory of scenic modu- 
lation, see note, 82. 

Columella, L. Junius — his enumeration 
of writers 'De Re Rustica,' 168. 

, L. Junius Moderatus, writer on 

practical agriculture — referred to 
by Pliny — his birth and travels — his 
work, ' De Re Rustica,' 546. Reason 
for writing ten books in verse, 547 

Colu mna Rostrata, of Duillius — in- 
scription on —rent by lightning, 27. 



Collyra, mistress of Lucilius, 147. 

Comedy, division of, by Romans, note, 
56. Its character — why natural to 
Romans — remodelled by Nsevius, 61. 
Of Ennius, modelled after that of 
Greek, 75. Roman, at first rude — 
extemporaneous — satirical — personal 
— performed by amateurs — more 
developed— Greek comedy engrafted 
on it — character of old Attic — critical 
— not suited to Roman manners or 
taste, 77. New comedy adopted by 
Romans, 78. Of Menander and Phi- 
lemon, character of — fragments pre- 
served by Christian writers, mora- 
lity of, 78. Plots Greek — action and 
speech Roman— Plautus an excep- 
tion — want of variety in, 79. Causes 
of, 80. Range of subjects small — 
costume of actors in, 80. Names in, 
have appropriate meaning — examples 
of — relation of music to, 81. Origi- 
nated in Italy — brought to perfec- 
tion by influence of Greek literature, 
124. 

Commentaries of Csesar, when com- 
posed, 376. His most important 
work — account of, 377. Purity of 
style — termed ' Ephemerides,' 378. 
Character of, 379. Subject of, com- 
pared with work of Xenophon, 381. 

Como, school established at, by younger 
Pliny, 529. 

Congreve, contrasted with Terence, 104. 

Conjurations in Cato, 169. 

1 Consolatio,' of Seneca, to whom ad- 
dressed, 482. 

Consonants, when elided in Augustan 
age, 86. 

Constantine, Emperor, quotes Virgil's 
' Pollio ' as evidence for Christianity, 
249. 

Controversial work of Seneca on foren- 
sic eloquence — character of, 508. 

'Copa,' elegiac poem of Virgil — fes- 
tive, 244. 

Corcyra, illness of Tibullus at, 307. 

Corduba, Cordova, birthplace of Lucan, 
453 ; of Seneca, 507. 

Cordus, Crementius, prose writer in 
time of Tiberius, 482. 

Corfinium, in Pelignia, called Italica, 
supposed birthplace of C. Silius, 462. 

Corinna, mistress of Horace, 317. 

Cornelia, wife of J. Csesar, his funeral 
oration on — daughter of Cinna, 374. 

, mother of Gracchi, her care in 

educating her children, 536, 



566 



INDEX. 



Corneille, considers Seneca ideal of 
tragic poet, 432. 

Cornificius, Q., grammarian, 405. 

Cornutus, Annaeus, tutor of Persius in 
Stoic philosophy, 435. Literary heir 
of Persius, 436. Edits his works, 438. 
Fifth satire of Persius addressed to, 
441. 

Corsica, Seneca banished to, 509. 

Cortonian, inscriptions — language of — 
rendered into Latin, 19. 

Coruncanius, Tib., Pont. Max., consul — 
opens school of jurisprudence, 202. 

Costume, Etruscan, characteristic of 
Eoman, 22. Of Eoman actors con- 
ventional, 80. 

Cotta, orator, 188. His taste — want 
of energy, 194. Rival of Hortensius, 
195. 

Crassus, P. Licinius, orator, 188. Birth 
and profession — success — quaestor in 
Asia — studies under Metrodorus — ■ 
attends lectures at Athens, 190. 
His chef-d'oeuvre — closes Greek 
schools, 191. Cicero's partiality for 
— his wealth — his style, 192. Repre- 
sents Cicero in ' De Oratore ' — his 
death, 193. Surnamed the rich — 
learned in the law, 203. Opposes 
Cicero for consul, 333. 

Cremona, Virgil educated at, 238. 

Crates comes to Rome as ambassador 
from Attalus — reads commentaries 
on Greek poets, 158. 

Crispinus, consul — C. Alimentus his 
legate, 155. 

Critolaus, the Peripatetic, comes to 
Rome, 158. 

' Culex,' bucolic poem of Yirgil — sub- 
ject of epigram in — Spenser's repro- 
duction of, 243. 

' Curculio,' comedy of Plautus — plot of, 
93. 

Curio, orator, 188. 

Cuvier, observes defects in 'Natural 
History,' of Pliny, 527. 

Cyclic poems, supply material for Vir- 
gil, 258. For Naevius, 265. 

' Cyclops,' of Theocritus, supposed ori- 
ginal of second Eclogue of Virgil, 247. 

' Cynegetica,' poem of Gratius, its 
character — derived from Xenophon, 
325. 

Cynthia, mistress of Propertius — origi- 
nal name Hostia — native of Tivoli, 
308. 

j mistress of Tibullus, 310 

1 Cyprian,' poem of Lucilius, 148. 



Dante thought Statius a Christian, 469. 
His admiration of Statius — reasons 
for, 471. 

' De Amicitia,' Essay of Cicero, 357. 

■ Analogia,' philosophical work of 

Caesar commended by Cicero — when 
written — effect produced by, 382. 

Astris,' work of Caesar — its cha- 
racter, 375. 

Bello Civili,' erroneously attributed 

to Caesar, 377. 

Castramentatione,' work by Hy- 

ginus, 548. 

Consolatione,' ethical work of 

Seneca addressed to Polybius, 511. 

Constantia,' ethical work of Sen- 
eca, 511. 

Divinatione,' theological treatise 

of Cicero, 358. 

— — ■ Finibus,' dialogue of Cicero on 
moral action, 357. 

Gestis Romanorum Epitome of 

Annaeus Florus, 505. 

Historicis, work of Nepos, 371. 

■ Inventione Rhetorica,' treatise of 

Cicero, when composed, 332. A ju- 
venile production, 349. 

Legibus,' political work of Cicero 

— tendency of — practical nature of, 
359. Characters in, 360. 

Lingua Latina,' work of Varro 

Reatinus, 367. 

Morte,' work of Varius, 305. 

Natura Deorum,' theological work 

of Cicero, 358. 

Officiis,' moral treatise of Cicero 

— principles of — addressed to his 
son, 357. 

Optimo Genere Oratorum ' — pre- 
face to translation of oration 'De 
Corona' of Demosthenes, 350. 

Oratore,' first of a series, work of 

Cicero on rhetoric, 349. Dramatis 
personae and scene of, 350. 

— — Partitione Oratoria,' elementary 
work of Cicero, 350. 

Providentia,' ethical treatise of 

Seneca — suicide, how esteemed in, 
511. 

Republica,' political work of Cicero 

— imperfect — imitated from Plato, 
358. Characters in, 359. 

Republica Ordinanda,' letter to 

Caesar attributed to Sallust — author 
uncertain, 388 

Rerum Natura,' poem of Lucre- 
tius ' On the Nature of Things,' 218. 

■ Re Rustica,' treatise of Cato — in- 



INDIA. 



5G7 



forest attached to agriculture In 

Rome) HIT. State of — common -place 
book, 1(58. Conjurstioues in, 169. 

De Be Hustioa,' Columella's list of 
writers, 168. His treatise on, 546. 
Calendar contained in — reason for 
writing tenth book in verse, 547. 

■ Re Rustica,' treatise by Varro 

Reatinus, 366. 

Seneetute,' essay by Cicero, 357. 

Situ et Moribus Germanise,' work 

of Tacitus, 489. 

Situ Orbis,' geographical work of 

Pomponiua Mela, 546. 

Summo Bono,' treatise on physi- 
cal nature of things by Catius — ex- 
ceptional in Roman philosophy, 354. 

1 Decius,' historical play of Attius, 139. 

Deities, the Etruscan — natural gods of 
Rome, 11. 

Delator, public informer — bane of 
Rome under Emperors, 413. 

Delia, mistress of Tibullus — real name 
of, 307. 

Demosthenes, admiration of Livy for, 
395. 

Denarii struck by confederate Italians 
in Latin and Oscan languages, 17. 

Dennis, Mr., finds Etruscan alphabet at 
Bomarzo, 19. His discoveries at 
Cervetri, 120. 

Designatianus, S. L., court physician to 
Claudius, 545. 

Despatches of younger Pliny — on treat- 
ment of Christians, 530. 

'Diana,' poem of Yal. Cato, 235. 

,' secular hymn by Catullus, 229. 

Dictator, Etruscan, origin of — ceremony 
performed by, 155. 

' Dieram Opus,' poem of A. Sabinus — 
continuation of Ovid's ' Fasti,' 326. 

Didactic poetry, its character, 252. 
Beauty • — Georgics of Virgil ex- 
amples of, 253. 

' Didascalion, Libri,' Roman annals in 
verse by Attius, 141. 

Dido, lament for, by Spenser, copied 
from Virgil, 247. 

Digentia, Licenza, Horace's farm at, 
near Tivoli, 274. 

Diodes of Peparethus — works of— sup- 
plies materials for Fabius Pictor, 
155. 

Diodotus, Stoic philosopher, teacher of 
Cicero, 355. 

Diogenes, Stoic, comes to Rome, 158. 

Diomedes, grammarian— attributes ori- 
gin of Saturnian verse to Nsevius, 32. 



Dion Cassius, authority for Fabius 
Pictor, 154. His account of Maecenas' 
influence, 300. 

Dionysius, his opinion of origin of 
Etruscans, 9. Quotes Calpurnius 
Piso, 173 ; Tubero, 178. 

Diphilus, Greek comedian, copied by 
Plautus, 92. 

' Dine,' poem attributed to Val. Cato 
by Scaliger, 235. 

Dolabella,Cn., accused by J. Csesar, 373. 

Domitian, T. F., Augustus, forms Capi- 
toline library, 365. Juvenal flourishes 
in reign of, 445. Praised as a poet 
by C. V. Flaccus — P. Statius, his 
tutor, 467. Patronizes son of, 468. 
Paraphrases phenomena of Aratus 
— his patronage of literature, 472. 
Martial, favourite of, 475. Quintilian 
tutor to great-nephews of, 534. 

Donaldson, his opinion of origin of 
Romans, 7. Adopts that of Lepsius 
respecting Rasena, 10. Translation 
of Eugubine tables, 15. Copy of 
Bantine Table in ' Varronianus ' of, 
17. Translation of Salian hymn, 24. 
Gives Tiburtine inscription at length 
— and fragments of laws of Twelve 
Tables, 25. 

Donatus, his account of scenic modula- 
tions, note, 82. Of reception of Ter- 
ence by Statius, 102. 

Drama, the, origin of — from whence in- 
troduced into Rome — Livy's account 
of — union of Etruscan and Oscan 
entertainments, 48. Its position in 
Athens, 128. 

Dramatic literature, fall of, 208. 

Drayton imitates Virgil, 247. 

Dryden, his opinion of Ovid's banish- 
ment, 318. 

Duilius, inscription on Columna Ro- 
strata of, 27. 

'Dulorestes,' tragedy ofPersius — found- 
ed on one of Euripides' — inspired by 
iEschylus — subject of — how ap- 
plauded, 137. 

Dunlop, his observations on descriptive 
powers of Virgil, 263. 

'Eclogues,' Bucolic poems of Virgil, 
244. 

' Ecole des Maris,' comedy of Molidre, 
copied from Terence, 120. 

'Education Primary,' Quintilian's opi- 
nion of its importance, 537. 

Elision, common in all spoken languages 
— effect of, on Roman comic metres 



568 



INDEX. 



— less common in Greek — mark of 
elegance among Romans, 83. Ap- 
proved by Cicero — used by Virgil 
and Terence, 84. 

Elisions, the most usual among writers 
of the Augustan age, 85. 

Eloquence characteristic of Eomans — 
origin of — fostered by free institu- 
tions, 179. Application of — early 
examples of, 180, 181. 

causes of corrupt, treatise on, 

attributed to Quintihan, 540. 

Ennius, Q., language of — style formed 
after Greek models, 7. Introduces 
heroic hexameter, 32. His praise of 
Naevius, 60. Unsuccessful in heroic 
metre — never understood caesura, 64, 
Founder of new school — events of his 
life — returns home with Cato from 
Sardinia — no data for contradiction 
of — resides at Rome — gains liveli- 
hood by teaching — position in 
literary society — dies aged — buried 
in tomb of Scipio, 67. His own 
epitaph — his epitaph in honour of 
S. Africanus — works preserved to 
thirteenth century — a gentleman — 
obtains due influence in society for 
literature — how spoken of by 
Cicero, 68 By Horace — his taste, 
learning, and critical judgment — 
remodels Roman literature — cha- 
racteristic features of his poetry — 
personal character— his life — early 
training — faith — intimates, 70. 
Latin language, how indebted to 
him — Quintilian's opinion of, 71. 
Power over words, 71. Imitates 
most Greek metres — not with fa- 
cility — imperfection of verses — 
is epic, ' The Annals,' written 
in hexameters — Roman history 
omitting first Punic war — reason for 
omission — difficulty of subject, 72. 
Its order chronological — necessity for 
use of fiction as embellishment — no 
unity, no hero — difficulty of uniting 
historian and poet — his descrip- 
tive powers — his language — his 
battles, graphic description of, 73. 
His similes imitations of Homer — 
great as a dramatist — translated from 
Greek — ' Annals ' quoted by Cicero 
■ — Yirgil once from dramatical epic — 
verses recited at Puteoli, 74. Tra- 
gedies, numerous titles and frag- 
ments of 23 remain : fragments of 
'Medea;' 'Eumenides,' translations 



from Greek ' Hecuba,' according to A. 
Gellius — favourite model, Euripides' 
blunders palliated — example ap- 
pealed to by Terence — fragments of 
— his ' Satires '—his character of — 
epitaph, 75. ' Epicharmus, ' didactic 
poem, encomium on, S. Africanus — 
' Evemerus ' translation of Phagatica 
— Asotus — mythological, mentioned 
by Cicero —theory of, adopted by 
Livy, 76. Palm of epic poetry given 
to, by Cicero, contemporary with 
Statins, 100. Invents name of 
satire, 144. Placed by Suetonius 
among the grammarians, 205. 

Epicadus, Cornelius, freedman of Sulla, 
completed his ' Commentaries,' 206. 

Epicharis, her heroism contrasted with 
weakness of Lucan, 454. 

'Epicharmus,' poem of Ennius, 76. 

Epicurean philosophy, doctrines of, con- 
tained in work of Lucretius, 222. 
How different from original, 223. 
How received by Romans, 226. Vir- 
gil devoted to, 237. Sixth eclogue 
of Virgil, vehicle for, 251. Why 
adopted in Rome — its first profes- 
sors, 354. Disciples of — records of 
wanting, except works of Lucretius, 
355. 

Epicurus, his character — his philosphy, 
355. Not effeminate, 225. Calum- 
nies against — his idea of the Deity — 
of human responsibility — his death, 
226. 

' Epidicus,' comedy of Plautus — favour- 
ite of the author — plot of— a slave, 
94. 

Epigram, the Greek, its origin, 472. 
Metre of, 473. 

, the Roman writers of, 473. * Its 

character, 474. 

Epirota, Q. Caecilius, grammarian, 405. 

Epistles, poems of Horace — his most 
polished efforts— subjects of, 320. 
By whom translated — Pope, how in- 
debted to, 321. 

from Pontus,' poems of Ovid — 

their character — one to Persilla — 
carelessness of, 323. 

of Seneca, their number, charac- 
ter, and philosophy, 513. 

Epitaph of Scipio Africanus — Ennius 
— of Ennius by himself, 68. 

' Epitome de Gestis Romanorum,' work 
of Annaeus Floras, 505. Uncertainty 
respecting, 506. 

Epodes of Horace, their bitterness — 



INDEX. 



569 



cause of, 274. Time of Publication, 

Ei-os Stabinus, grammarian, 405. 

Esquiliue Hill, Virgil's house on, 240. 
Villa of Horace on, 274. Description 
of, 284. Tibullus, house on, 310. 
luBoenas' villa on, 302. 

Etruscan language not Lydian — how 
compounded, 9-11. Obscurity of — 
Remains of — principally sepulchral, 
18. In Perugian inscription — its re- 
lation to Umbrian and Pelasgian. 19. 
Alphabet extant —where found —how 
deficient — its relation to Latin, Pelas- 
gian, and Greek — catalogue of words 
in, 20. 

literature, influence of, upon 

Roinan, 42. Histriones exhibit at 
Rome during plague — their ballets, 
48. 

Etruscans, Lepsius, theory of origin of 
— date of immigration— extent of do- 
minion in Italy — origin of — opinion 
of Herodotus and Dionysius respect- 
ing — emigration of, from Lydia — 
similar to Phoenicians — civilizers of 
Italy, 9. Spectacle of Fescennine 
games derived from, 46. Ceremony 
derived from, 155. 

Etruria occupied by Pelasgians, 8, 10. 
Language of — religion and mythology 
of, adopted by Romans, 11. 

Eugubine Tables, Etruscan or Umbrian, 
14. Translation from, 15. Satur- 
nine measure traceable in, 83. 

'Eunienides' of iEschylus, translated 
by Ennius, 75. 

'Eunuchus,' comedy of Terence — tran- 
script from Menander — accompani- 
ment to — most popular — price of — 
character — contrasts in — plot and 
under-plot — skill shown in — morality 
of, 110. Suggests plot to Sedley — 
translated by La Fontaine — imitated 
by Brueys, 111. 

' Euphorion,' Greek poem of, translated 
by Gallus, 306. 

Euripides, Saturnine verse in writings 
of, 33. Favourite model of Ennius 
— 'Medea' of. translated by Ennius, 
75. ' Phoenissse ' of, by Attius, 139. 

'Eusebian Chronicle,' account of birth 
of Persius from, 434. 

' Evemerus,' mythological work of En- 
nius mentioned by Cicero — theory of, 
adopted by Livy, 76. 

'Exemplorum Libri,' book of anecdotes 
by C. Nepos, 371. 



'Exodia,' farcical interludes in Ludi 
Osci, 47. Why maintained by Ro- 
man youth, 55. 

Fables popular among Romans — 
brought from Greece — how natural- 
ized, 410. 

Fabius Maximus, Cato serves under, 
159. Eulogium on his son — Cicero's 
estimate of, 181. 

' Fab uke Atellanse,' Oscan dramas — 
when introduced to Rome, 16. In 
favour for centuries— patronized by 
Sylla, 48. Origin of Roman mimes, 
209. 

Palliatse,' 99. Comedies of Ter- 
ence, 107. Of Turpilius, 123. 

Prastextata;,' historical plays — 

small number of, 127. Titles of, 
128. 

Togatae (tabernariEe), comedies of 

lowest class, so called, 121. 

Faliscus, Gratius, little known of —con- 
temporary with Ovid — his poem — its 
character — whence derived, 325. 

Fannius, C, praetor, his history of 
Rome, 172. 

Fano, Colonia Julia Fanestris, Basi- 
lica at, 407. 

' Fasti,' antiquarian poem of Ovid — un- 
finished — its beauty, 323. 

'Fate,' theological treatise by Cicero, 
358. 

Fenestella corrects opinion on Terence, 
101. 

Feriolo, Terra di, Senatus-consultum 
found at, 28. 

Fescennine songs, their character — 
satirical, 44. Forbidden — origin of, 
46. Germ of Roman Comic Drama, 
47. 

Festus, etymological illustration from 
Ennius, 76. 

Figulus, P. Nigidius, orator, philoso- 
pher, and grammarian, 405. 

Fimbria, orator, 188. 

Flaccus, Aulus Persius, criticizes frag- 
ment of ' Antiopa ' of Pacuvius, 136. 
L T ses satire for didactic purposes 
only, 144. Takes mimes of Sophron 
for his models, 209. His birth, 
family, and education, 434. Account 
of his verse — boyhood — studies Stoic 
philosophy, 435 . His friends— fortime 
— death — his purity — how different 
from Lucretius, 436. From Juvenal 
— his reserve — defect as a satirist — 
contrasted with Horace and Juvenal 



570 



INDEX. 



— popularity of his works — opinions 
of Christian fathers — of Gifford, 438 . 
Proceniium to his works — exposes 
consequence of false taste in rhetoric 
in first Satire — embodies second 
Alcibiades of Plato in second— ex- 
ample from, 439. Picture of sen- 
sualist in third Satire — Quotations 
from, alluded to by St. Augustine, 
440. First Alcibiades of Plato 
foundation for fourth Satire — Fifth 
Satire of, most elaborate — Sixth, 
most delightful — character mirrored 
in, 441 . Style of, obscure — consequent 
on education — description of, 442. 
Examples of his adaptation of ex- 
pressions of Horace — public recita- 
tion commenced in his time, 444. 

Flaccus,C. Valerius, his birth and death 
— his poem, 466. Criticism on — 
compared with Virgil, 467. 

L. Valerius, patronizes Cato — his 

colleague as Consul, 159. As Censor, 
160. MSS. of, discovered by Pog- 
gius, 540. 

> , Q. Horatius, his appellation for 

Ennius, 68, 70. Passages in satires 
on parasites, 88. His opinion of 
Statins, 100. Of Afranius, 121. 
Lament of, on decay of virtue, 130. 
Humorous application of satire, 144. 
Criticisms of, unfavourable to Laelius 
— prejudice against old Koman lite- 
rature, 145. Journey to Brundisium, 
idea of, whence borrowed, 147. Gives 
new garb to satire, 148. Jealousy of 
Catullus, 230. His opinion of Cato, 
235. His poetry subjective — sup- 
plies materials for life — his position 
in society, 266. His birth, 268. 
Love for beauties of nature, how en- 
gendered — example of, 269. Studies 
at Eome — paternal care of, 270. 
Goes to Athens — joins Brutus — un- 
fit — flight at Philippi — Ode to Varus 
— loses patrimony — clerk to quaestor 
— patronized by Maecenas, 272. Ac- 
companies him to Brundisium — ship- 
wreck off Cape Palinurus — dates of 
his poems, 273. His Sabine farm — 
house on the Esquiline, 274. His 
life and occupations, 276. His Odes, 
279. Epistles— his death, 280. Per- 
sonal appearance, 281. Character of 
Horace — opinions of Petrarch and 
Maecenas — esteem for, 282. Princi- 
ples — prejudices — jealousy — locali- 
ties sacred to — his villa — Sabine farm 



— Bandusian fountain, 284. Dunlop's 
suggestion respecting — Dennis' opi- 
nion respecting, 285. Descriptive 
powers and truthfulness of — charac- 
ter of his Satires — examples, 287. 
Satires social, not political— how 
modified by his own character, 288 ; 
sometimes didactic — subjects of — 
Epistles, desultory, 289. Subject of 
— versification of, 290. Shows mas- 
tery over Greek metres, 291. Ex- 
amples of transmutation, 292-7. 
Spurious odes, 297. Chronological 
order of works according to Bentley, 
298. Mentions mistress of Tibullus 
— names of his characters not real, 
307. Extols Pollio, 363. Character 
of his satire, 438. His influence on 
Persius, how exemplified, 443. Play- 
fulness of, imitated by Juvenal, 449. 

Flaccus Siculus, one of the Agri-men- 
sores, 548. 

Verrius, grammarian, 405. 

Flavius, Cn., sets up calendar in forum, 
202. 

Flavus, Virginius, tutor of Persius — 
author of treatise on rhetoric, 435. 

Florus, L. Annaeus, example of Satur- 
nine verse from, 37. Supposed 
writer of verses to Hadrian — epitome 
of — uncertainty respecting, 506. 

Flute, the, accompaniment to Ode in 
Drama of L. Andronicus, 53. Eoman 
— different kinds of, 81. 

Fontaine, La, translates 'Eunuch,' of 
Terence, 111. 

Fonteius, Cicero's oration for, 345. 

Fonte Bello, on Mount Lucretilis, 284. 
The Bandusian fountain of Horace, 
285. 

Formiae, M. Vitruvius Pollio, born at, 
406. 

Frejus, C. C. Gallus, born at, 305. 

Freinsheim supplies lost books of Q. 
Curtius, 504. 

1 Friendship,' essay of Cicero on, 357. 

Frontinus, S. Julius, his works — l Stra- 
tagematicon, 547. ■ Treatise on aque- 
ducts — one of the Agri-mensores — 
Mebuhr's opinion of — little known of 
— his offices, 548. 

Fulvia, wife of Antony, her barbarity, 
339. 

Fuscus Arellius, Ovid studies rhetoric 
under, 313. 

Gades, (Cadiz), Columella born at, 546. 
Gaius, institutes of — fragments pre- 



INDEX. 



571 



•d by Justinian- -palimpsest MS. 
o\\ discovered by Niebuhr — success- 
ful interpretation of, B01. 

Qalassi, General, his discoveries at 
Genet ri, 21. 

Qalba, Sulpicius — Cato's 'Origines,' 
Hi."). His Consulship — limit of — 
prosecution of last act of Cato, 1G0. 
Oicero"s praise of— his oratory — use 
of artifice in, 184. His style, 185. 

, the Emperor, brings Quintilian to 

Rome, 534. 

Gallia Togata, province of, Teucer, 
Iacchus, and Chares, grammarians, 
teach in, 206. 

Gallic, L. Junius, rhetorician, uncle to 
Lucan, adopted by J. Gallio — sup- 
posed to be mentioned in Acts of 
the Apostles, 452. 

Gallus, iElius, senior to Cicero — his 
treatise on law terms — not prefect in 
Egypt — quoted by Varro, 204. 

, Asinius, son of Polho, wrote com- 
parison between his father and Cicero 
— answered by Claudius, 363. 

, C. Aquilius, pupil of Q. Mucius 

Scajvola — his antiquarian knowledge 
— a law reformer — his wealth — 
prsetor with Cicero, 204. 

, C. Cornelius, general and poet — 

one line of wri tings only remains — 
his birth and education — patronized 
by Polho, 305. Attached to Octavius 
— his actions — exile — death — criti- 
cisms on, his elegies — translates 
poems of Euphorion, 306. 

Games, public, contrast between Greek 
and Roman, 132. 

Garda, Lago di, birth-place of Catullus, 
227. 

Garrick,his play, the 'Guardian,' copied 
from ' Adelphi,' of Terence, 120. 

Gellius, Aulus. his date for dramas of 
L. Andronicus, 55. Opinion of, on 
'Hecuba,' of Ennius, 75. Epigram 
by Varro in ' Noctes ' of, 91. Gives 
parallel passages from Menander and 
Statius, 99. Preserves epigram on 
Pacuvius, 135. Story of Attius re- 
lated by, 138. Preserves fragments 
of Lucilius, 148. Notices the intro- 
duction of Athenian ambassadors to 
Senate by A. Glabrio, 157. Quotes 
Anecdote of Romulus from C. Pi so, 
173. Preserves peroration of Scipio 
in speech on battle of Zama, 182. 
Flourished in third period of Roman 
literature, 550. 



Gellius, On., contemporary withCcoliuR 

— wrote Roman history — of little 
authority, 172. 

Sextus, contemporary with Aulus, 

173. 

' Georgics ' of Virgil, didactic poem, 
252. Labour bestowed on — criticism 
of Addison upon, 253. Love of 
Romans for country life — cause for 
writing — poem of Hesiod — model for 
— compared with, 254. Subject of, 
proposed by Maecenas — when written 
— agricultural system contained in, 
255. Whence derived — contents of 
— episodes in, 256. By whom imi- 
tated, 257. 

' Germany ' of Tacitus — sources of, 489. 
Account of Germans in, 490. Their 
tribes and localities— marvels con- 
tained in, 491. 

Getse, or Tornitee, inhabitants of Tomi, 
Ovid resides among, 319. 

Gibbon, opinion of, on passage in Q. 
Curtius, 504. 

Gifford, his observations on obscurity 
of Persius, 438. Translation of Sa- 
tires by, 435, 439, 440, 441, 442. 

Glabrio, C. Acilius, third Grseco-Roman 
historian, 156. Very little known of 
his offices — history translated by 
Claudius— referred to by Livy — cha- 
racter of, 157. 

Glycera, mistress of Tibullus, spoken 
of by Horace, 307. 

Gnipho, M. Antonius, grammarian, a 
Gaul, 206. 

Gods of Etruscans, not same as Greek, 
11. Adopted by Romans, 12, and 
note. 

Grsecia Magna, its intercourse with and 
influence on Rome, 13. 

Gracchus, Caius, language of, 7. Cha- 
racter and oratory compared with 
his brother's, 188. Cicero's account 
of his eloquence — fragments of ora- 
tions of — speech against P. Lsenas, 
188. His ' Lex Sempronia,' 190. 

Tiberius, his character and oratory 

—Cicero's epithet for— Plutarch's 
account of, 187. 

Gracchi, the, father of, eloquent, 183. 
Era of, favourable to eloquence, 185. 
Their eloquence, 186. Influence of 
mother upon political principles of, 
187. Orators who succeeded them, 
188. 

Grammarians, the, originally called Lit- 
terati — their character and influence 



572 



INDEX. 



— the first of, 205. Mostly slaves 
emancipated, 206. Names of — most 
conspicuous among, 405. 

Gratidia, sorceress, lampooned by Hor- 
ace as Canidia, 308. 

Gray, example of Latin rhyming verse 
from, 38. 

Greece, Cato legatus.in, 159. 

Greek language, Latin compared with, 
1. Its permanence, 2. Foundation 
for a liberal education in Rome — 
prevailed at commencement of Chris- 
tian era, 3. Dependant on Greek race 
— not yet dead, 4. How changed — 
its individuality, 5. Affinity with 
Pelasgic, 12. When introduced into 
Eome, 13. 

literature, influence of, on Roman, 

42. 

' Grief, the Alleviation of,' treatise by 
Cicero, 357. 

' Guardian,' comedy of Garrick, copied 
from Terence, 150. 



Hadrian, Emperor, example of Satur- 
nine verse from works of, 33. His 
epitaph on Voconius not applicable 
to Catullus, 228. His library, 365. 
Epigram of — imitated by Pope, 473. 
Suetonius private secretary to, 500. 
Resides at Athens — his love for 
Greek — consequences of, to Roman 
literature, 549. 

'Halieutica,' poem on fishing, attributed 
to Ovid, 324. 

Hamilcar, life of, attributed to C. 
Nepos, 371. 

Handbook of Rhetoric,' attributed to 
Cicero, 349. 

Hannibal, his friendship for C. Alimen- 
tus — information given by, 156. Life 
of, attributed to C. Nepos — his route 
across the Alps, 371. 

' Heautontimorumenos,' comedy of Te- 
rence, adapted from Menander — 
accompaniment to — when presented 
— author's masterpiece — its cha- 
racter — Steele's opinion of — its re- 
ception, 111. Examples from, 113. 

' Hecuba,' of Ennius, translated from 
Greek, 75. 

'Hecyra,' comedy of Terence, adapted 
from Menander — twice rejected, 115. 
How successful — inferiority of — not 
imitated — plot of, 116. Title whence 
derived, 117. 

Helvia, wife of M. Annaous Seneca, 507. 



Ethical treatise addressed to, by her 
son, 511. 

Helvidius, Q., Cato's jest on, 192. 

Hemina, L. Cassius, historian after 
Cato — his annals — extent of, 171. 
Fragments remaining, 172. 

Hercules, picture of, by Pacuvius, 135. 
Short poem by J. Ceesar in praise of 
— suppressed by Augustus, 382. 

Hermann, his opinion of origin of Sa- 
turnine verse, 32. Restoration of 
passage of Livy, 34. Of oracles re- 
specting Alban lake — fragments of 
Saturnine verse collected by, 35. 
Collects fragments of L. Andronicus, 
52. 

Her odotus, hi s opinion of origin of Etrus- 
cans, 10. Livy compared with, 403. 

Hesiod, Works and Days of — model of 
Virgil in Georgics, 254. 

Hetserse, prominent position of in Ro- 
man comedy, 79. 

Hexameters, not mentioned by Ennius 
or Cicero, 64. First by Virgil, 65. 

Hirtius, friend of J. Csesar — correspon- 
dent of Cicero, 362 Works attri- 
buted to J. Caesar — probably written 
by, 378. Observations of, on style 
of J. Caesar, 380. Wrote first Anti- 
cato, 381. 

'Historise,' of Tacitus — remains of — 
extent of work — materials for, 491. 
Date of— St. Jerome's account of, 
492. Jews, how represented in — 
traditions respecting, 493. 

' Historiee Philippicae,' of Trogus Pom- 
peius — its subject and extent, 392. 

Historians, Roman — excel Greek — cata- 
logue of — their originality, 369. 

Histories, of Sallust, continued from 
Sisenna — Mebuhr deplores loss of, 
388. 

History, Roman, first literary effort of 
Romans, 43. Genius, how directed 
to — principle of Roman mind, 150. 
Want of philosophic spirit in — 
writing of esteemed honourable — 
early writers of, 151. First efforts in 
— early records of — written in Greek, 
152. Written by great and noble, 
177. Why material to Roman mind, 
368. Comparison of Grecian with — 
catalogue of writers of, 369. 

of Patrician houses, often fabu- 
lous, 44. 

Histrio, how different from Atellan, 48. 

Homer, similes of, imitated by Statius, 
471. 



INDEX. 



573 



Hortalus, son of Ilortensius — poem of 
Catullus on death of his brother, 
addressed to, 229. 

Ilortensius, L., father of Quintus, prae- 
tor m Sicily, 195. 

, Quintus, rival of Cicero, 189. 

Last of pre-Ciceronian orators — 
knowledge of him derived from 
Cicero, li>4. His birth — success — 
leader of Roman bar — connexion 
with Sulla — defeated by Cicero — their 
friendship — jealousy of Cicero, 195. 
Political union — defends his nephew 
— his death — his daughter — accused 
of corruption — wealth — luxury, 196. 
Cicero's opinion of his oratory, 197. 
His delivery, 198. Rival of Cicero, 
332. Defence of Quinctius, 344. 
Dialogue of Cicero so named, 357. 

Huet, his opinion respecting M. Mani- 
lius, 327. 

Hyginus, C. Julius, writer — l De Re 
Rustica,' 168. Grammarian — his 
treatise ' On Field Fortification,' 548. 

, Gromaticus, one of the Agri- 

mensores, 548. 

Hyllas, actor in pantomime, 215. 

Iacchus, Siscennius, grammarian, 
teaches in Gaul, 206. 

Iambus, adapted to epic and ballad 
poetry, 64. 

'Ibis,' satire of Ovid, 324. 

Ictus, essential of Saturnine verse, 36. 
Return to, in later periods of Latin 
literature, 37. 

'Iliad' of Homer, supplies plan of 
* iEneid,' — comparison with, 257. 

Indo-European race, Hellenic family 
belong to, 1. Tribes of, out of Italy 
— Italian families of, 7. All families 
of, have dramatic taste, 124. 

Inscriptions, Umbrian, 14. Sabello- 
Oscan, Etruscan, 19. Pelasgic, 20, 
21. Latin, 23-27. 

Institutiones of Quintilian — work on 
oratory — scope of — to whom dedi- 
cated — care taken in composition of, 
536. Analysis of, 537. 

Itali, Vituli, or Sikeli, Italian tribe, 7. 

Italian taste for drama, humorous, 124. 

Italica, in Spain, supposed birth-place 
of C. Silius — reasons against supposi- 
tion, 462. 

Italieus, C. Silius — opinions respecting 
his birth-place — his profession — of- 
fices — wealth, 462. Death — character 
— poem — opinion of Niebuhr re- 



specting, 464. Examples from, 465. 
Biographical notice of, by Younger 
Pliny, 533. MSS. of, discovered by 
Poggius, 540. 

Italy, races of, various, 1. Three tribes 
of Indo- Germanic — of same race as 
Lithuanians, 7. 

' Iter,' poem of Caesar, its subject, 382. 

ad Lentulum,' historical play, sub- 
ject of, 128. 

Jerome, St., his account of Pacuvius, 
135. Believed < Sibyls ' inspired, 249. 
His account of ' Historian ' of Tacitus, 
492. 

Jews, Tacitus' account of, 492. Tradi- 
tions concerning, 493. 

Johnson imitates satires of Juvenal, 
450. 

Judices, their office in Rome, 342. 

c Jugurthine War,' first work of Sallust, 
388. Un worthiness of foreign policy 
of Rome exposed in, 390. 

Julia, wife of Marius, aunt to J. Caesar, 
funeral oration upon, 374. 

Junius, C, only constitutional history 
of Rome — surnamed Gracchanus — 
quoted as authority by jurists, 173. 

Jurisprudence, Roman mind why di- 
rected to, 149. Indispensable to 
statesman, 151. How connected 
with oratory, 152. 

of Romans, original — Twelve 

Tables, framework of — study of, 
necessary to political distinction, 199, 
Complicated, 200. Earliest works on 
— writers ou, 201. 

Justin adopts legend of Babyloniau 
origin of Cumaean Sibyl, 250. 

Justinian, pandects of— fragments of 
Pomponius and Gaius preserved in, 
201. 

Juvenalis, D. Junius, passage on Para- 
sites — on ' Satires ' of, 88. Used 
satire for didactic purposes, 144. 
Corroborates Sallust as to Roman 
venality, 389. Character of his 
satire, 438. Biography attributed to 
Suetonius — origin of his satirical 
writings — cause of exile — his death 
— birth unknown — probable time of, 
445. Influence of social state of 
Roman Empire on his writings — how 
described in them, 446. Personal 
character of, unamiable, 448. Cha- 
racter of his satires — Tenth recom- 
mended by Bishop Burnet — two imi- 
tated by Johnson, 449. Historical 



574 



INDEX. 



value of satires — contemporary with 
Tacitus — his style and language, 450. 
Last of Eonian satirists, 451. Those 
of Virgil, 459. Examples of, 460. 
Juventius, C, jurist, pupil of C. M. 
Scaevola, 205. 



Labeo, Q. Fabius, jurisconsult, 203. 

Laberius, Decius, Roman knight — 
writer of mimes — his birth — Horace's 
criticism of — Caesar's treatment of — 
specimens of his sarcasms, 210, 211. 

Lachmann proves Livy's want of per- 
sonal investigation, 400. 

Lactantius, L. Caelius, passages of Lu- 
cilius preserved by, 147. Christian 
ethical philosopher, 550. 

Lgelius, C. S., not author of scene in 
' Self-Tormentor,' 105. Pacuvius 
literary friend of, 135. His account 
of reception of ' Dulorestes,' 137. 
His character — friend of Scipio 
iEniil. compared with — his oratory, 
184. 

Laevius, lyric poet — contemporaneous 
with Lucilius — confounded with 
Livius and Naevius — passages attri- 
buted to him — his translation — ama- 
tory pieces — style— fragments pre- 
served by Apuleius and A. Gellius, 
148. 

Lambinus, Professor, attributes work 
to C. Nepos — his arguments — their 
value, 372. 

Lampadio, C. Octavius, grammarian — 
edits work of Naevius, 205. 

Language, Latin — composite character 
of — its origin — not plastic, 1. How 
indebted to Greek— its power — not 
permanent — its influence on modern 
languages, 2. Its narrow boundaries, 
3. Propagated by conquest, 4. No 
vitality or power of resistance to 
change — its changes — different from 
old Roman, 6. Earliest records of — 
origin of, 7. Elements of, 8. By 
whom pointed out, 12. Pelasgic 
element in (note), 13. Inscription 
on Denarii in — affinity to Oscan — 
examples of, 17. Oscan words incor- 
porated with, 18. Catalogue of Etrus- 
can words translated in, 20. Adapted 
into Pelasgian element — most influ- 
ential in forming structure of, 22. 
Oldest example of extant — translated 
by Orellius, 23. Saturnian metre, 
characteristic of — translated by Don- 



aldson, 24. Of Leges Regiae and laws 
of Twelve Tables — examples of, 25. 
Tiburthie, inscription in — examples 
of— on tomb of Scipio Barbatus, 26. 
Of Lucius Scipio — on columna ros- 
trata of Diulius, 27. Change ob- 
servable in time of Ennius, 28. Pro- 
nunciation of, 29. Grammatical in- 
flexions in, 31. 

Language of Bantine tables — affinity of 
with Latin — variations follow definite 
rules — examples of — relation to Os- 
can, 18. 

, the Etruscan — not Lydian, 9. 

Pelasgic allied with Umbrian — cor- 
rupted by Rhaeti, 10. Remains of — 
their character — relation to Pelasgic 
and Umbrian, 19. Inscription in, 21. 
Catalogue of words in, 20. 

Lanuvinus, L. iElius, grammarian, 206. 

Laocoon, statue of, expression of Roman 
tragic feeling, 132. 

Latinus, actor in pantomime in time 
of Nero, 215. 

, another of same name in time of 

Domitian — most popular — Martial's 
opinion of, 215. 

Latium, occupied by Pelasgians, 10. 

Latro, M. Porcius, Ovid studies rhetoric 
under, 313. Copied by Ovid, 314. 

' Laudatio,' the, funeral oration, 181. 

Lavinius, rival of Terence — interrupts 
performance of plays, 109. 

Laws of Twelve Tables — better known 
to us than to Livy, 400. 

Lays, Roman, origin of literature — not 
comparable to the Greek, 40. Not 
familiar to masses of people — not fit 
subjects for tragedy, 126. 

Leges Regiae, language of — date of, 25. 
Earliest Roman laws — codified by 
Papirius — their character, 201. Frag- 
ments of, better known to us than to 
Livy, 400. 

Lenaeus, grammarian, freedman of Pom- 
pey, 206. 

Lenis, Suetonius, father of C? -.S. Tran- 
quillus, tribune at Bedriacum, 499. 

Lentulus, execution of — its conse- 
quences to Cicero, 334. 

Lepidus Porcina, orator — model of T 
Gracchus, 186. 

Lepsius, his theory of origin of Tyrseni, 
10. Date of Eugubian tables, 14. 
Arrangement of Pelasgian inscrip- 
tions found at Cervetri, 21. 

'Letters' of Cicero, character of — con- 
trast with Greek — number of — not 



[NDEX. 



575 



intended for publication, 360. Stylo 
of— simplicity of, 361. 

' Letters 1 of paBsar, preserved with those 
of Cicero, 377. 

of Younger Pliny — their value, 

529. 

Libertini, class of, their position in 
Rome, 266. Importance of, 168. 

Libraries in Rome, whom founded by, 
364. Their number, ?>6o. 

License of Roman poets, 85. 

Licinius, Porcius, his account of life of 
Terence, 106. Epigram of V. Ata- 
einus, 236. 

, Lartius, offers to purchase MSS. 

of Elder Pliny, 518. 

Lintei, Libri, first Roman records, 43. 
Extant in time of Livy, 400. 

Liris River, the, Garigliano, Cicero born 
near, 330. 

Literature, Roman, three eras of — None 
before Punic wars, 39. Golden age 
of— origin of lays and legends, 40. 
Not spontaneous, 41. Influenced by 
Etruscans -by Greeks, 42. By cha- 
racter of people — history, first effort 
iu, 43. Genealogic — poetic Fescen- 
nine verses, example of earliest, 44. 
Rude — satirical, 45. Satire peculiar 
characteristic of — how affected by 
political events, 58. Made engine of 
political warfare by Naevius — how 
derived from Greek, 60. Comedy 
more natural to, than tragedy, 61. 
Naevius occupies intermediate po- 
sition in — old Roman driven out by 
Grecian, 66. Remodelled by Ennius, 
69. Its birth coincident with decay 
of that of Greece, 75. Taste of no- 
bility for, in time of Terence, 102. 
Greatest perfection of, 207. Cicero's 
place in, 341. Decline of, how 
characterized — when commenced — 
illustrious names in, 409. Fostered 
by great — decline of, after Augustus 
— influence of, succeeding Emperors, 
421. Degeneracy in time of Juvenal, 
448. 

, Greek, influence of, on Roman 

comedy, 124. Introduction of op- 
posed by Cato, 144. 

Lithuanians — Prussians of same race 
as original inhabitants of Italy, 7. 

' Lives of Eminent Generals,' work at- 
tributed to C. Nepos — account of, 
371. Evidence for authenticity of, 
372. 

Livia Augusta, address to, attributed 



to Ovid, 324. Mother of Tiberius, 

— history of Paterculus continued to, 
483. 

Livius Andronicus, flourished at com- 
mencement of first period of Roman 
literature, 3!). 

, T. Patavinus, mentions Oscan 

dramatic literature, 16. Saturnians 
found in writings of, 34. Passage in 
works of, relating to L. Andronicus, 
53, 54. Adopts theory of ' Evemerus' 
of Ennius, 76. Constantly refers to 
F. Pictor, 154. Opinion of C. Ali- 
mentus, 155. Statement respecting, 
156. Quotes Calphurnius Piso — 
estimation of, 173. Of Cn. Gellius, 
172. Quotes Quadrigarius, 175. Ex- 
poses exaggerations of V. Antia.s, 
176. Preserves extracts from, 177. 
Quotes Tubero, 178. Preserves ad- 
dresses of Q. Metellus to Censors. 
181. Adorns speech of Scipio, 182. 
Estimation of Crassus, 203. How 
indebted to Sallust, 390. Tradition 
respecting his birth — doubt of from 
epigram of Martial — follows Pompey, 
394. Patronized by Augustus — love 
for oratory —his fame, how reported 
by Pliny, and expanded by St. Je- 
rome — his ' Annals' — their extent — 
remains of works attributed to — 
death of — children — object in writing 
history, 395. Personality of narra- 
tive, 396. Only fit historian for 
those times, 397. Not always trust- 
worthy — how misled by partiality, 
398. Sympathy for Patricians, 399. 
Sources of history taken at second- 
hand, 400. Want of labour m pre- 
paration for work — want of geo- 
graphical knowledge — paraphrases 
Polybius — Niebuhr's analysis of 
mode of writing, 402. Not a student 
of men, but books — how deficient in 
qualifications for work, 403. Speeches 
in work, how inferior to those in 
Thucydides — beauties of, 404. Pata- 
vinity — fault attributed to — why un- 
reasonable, 405. 

Lueanus, M. Annaeus — flourished in 
Silver age — his family — his parentage 
— father supposed identical with 
Pomponius Mela, 452. His birth- 
place alluded to by Statins — story of 
Pliny concerning jealousy of Nero — 
its cause — joins conspiracy against 
emperor, 453. His weakness and 
death — contrasted with Epicharis— 



576 



INDEX. 



inscription to memory of— his 'Phar- 
salia,' 454. His other poems — ine- 
quality of his writings, 455. Dif- 
ferent opinions respecting causes of, 
456. Compared with Homer and 
Virgil — beauties of, 458. Spanish 
tone of writings — his description 
compared with Thomson, 459. 

Lucceius, L., orator — friend of Cicero, 
362. Espouses party of Caesar — ' His- 
tory of Social and Civil Wars ' not pub- 
lished — Cicero's encomiums of — why 
not trustworthy, 369. Joins Pompey 
— pardoned by Caesar, 370. 

Lucilius, founder of Roman satire — 
uses Greek comedy as model, 46-75. 

, C, satiric poet — of equestrian 

rank — his birth-place — serves under 
Scipio — uncle of Pompey — friend of 
Scipio and Lgelius — his ' Satires ' — 
thirty books — metres of — how ar- 
ranged — versification careless— stric- 
tures of Horace on — want of facility, 
145. Cicero partial to — reasons for 
— judgment of Quintilian — satires 
personal —his education — his cha- 
racter, 146. Encomiums on virtue — 
example from Lactantius — ' Journey 
to Capua' imitated by Horace, 147. 
His love poems — his lyrics — at his 
death satire languished — revived and 
remodelled by Horace, 148. 

, disciple of Seneca, to whom he 

addressed his epistles, 513. 

Lucretilis, Mount, Sabine farm of Horace 
on slope of, 284. 

Lucretius, model of Persius, 436. 

Lucullus, L. Licinius — his library open 
to learned men, 364. Conqueror of 
Mithridates — records events of Social 
War — forms library — friendship for 
Archias — patronizes men of letters — 
an orator — love of Greek — writes in 
that language — transcribes from 
Greek historians, 370. 

Ludi Osci, account of, 47. 

LudiuSj his landscape paintings sug- 
gestive to Virgil, 263. 

Lugdunum (Lyons), school established 
at, 550. 

Luscius, Lavinius, criticised by Terence 
for his translations from the Greek, 
123. 

'Lycidas,' of Milton, imitated from 
Fifth Eclogue of Virgil, 247. Pas- 
sage in from Tenth, 251. 

Lycoris, name of mistress of Gallus, 
306. 



' Lydia,' poem of V. Cato, 235. 

Lydia, migration of Etruscans from, 
asserted by Herodotus— not men- 
tioned by Xanthus — adopted by 
Romans, 9. • 

Lyric poetry subjective, 266. 

M, 86. 

Macaulay, examples of Saturnine verse 
quoted by, 35. His expansion of 
Roman lays, 41. 

Macedonia reduced to Roman province 
on defeat of Perseus — consequences 
of, to Roman literature, 158. 

Macer, iEmilius, poem of, fragment 
preserved by Ovid — its character — 
birth, death — paraphrased Meander 
—Quintilian 's praise of, 312. 

recites compositions to Ovid, 316 

Travels with Ovid, 317. 

C. Licinius, historian, contempo- 
rary with Cicero, 174. Character of 
— Niebuhr's opinion of — criticism on 
— extent of works of, 175, Quoted 
by Livy, 400. Letter of Younger 
Pliny to, 515. 

Macrinus, second satire of Juvenal ad- 
dressed to, 430. Panegyric of Pliny 
the Younger on wife of, 533. 

Mago, Carthaginian writer, ' De Re 
Rustica,' 168. 

Maecenas, C. Cilnius, Virgil introduced 
to, by Pollio — his literary society — 
journey to Brundisium, 239. Liber- 
ality of, 240. Suggests subject for 
' Georgics,' 255. Patronizes Horace, 
272. Reflects imperial favour, 273. 
Subject of first and last works of 
Horace, 278. His death, 280. His 
praise of Horace, 280. His descent 
and rank, 299. Character — power, 
300. Employment — influence on 
Augustus — its duration — his villa — 
friends — failings, 301. Patronizes V. 
Rufus, 305. Satirized Tibullus as 
Malthinus, 308. Four epigrams of, 
473. 

Magius, Jerome, contemporary of Lam- 
binus, his discovery respecting works 
of C. Nepos, 372. 

Mai, Angelo, adopts fables of Phaedrus, 
published by Perotto, as genuine, 413. 

Mallotes, Crates, first professional gram- 
marian, ambassador from Attalus — ■ 
Reads lectures on philosophy, 205. 

Manilian law supported by Cicero — 
its effect, 333. 

Manilius, M., jurist, 203. Introduced 



INDEX. 



577 



in dialogue 'De Republica' of Cicero 
— Consul — works attributed to biro 
— bow limited by Cicero, 203. His 
poems, 326. Date of existence un- 
certain — opinions of Bentley and 
Huet on — discovered in fifteenth 
century — philosophical principles of 
— incomplete, 327. 

Manlius, poem of Catullus to, 229. 

Manners, Roman, in time of Juvenal, 
446. 

Mantua, Virgil citizen of, 238. 

'Mareellus,' historical play of Attius, 
128, 139. 

Marciana, sister of Trajan, her influence 
on society in Rome, 485. 

Marius, poem of Cicero in praise ofj 
331. 

Maro, Virgilius P., his praise of Naevius, 
60. Quotes ' Annals ' of Ennius fre- 
quently, 74. Examples of elision in 
writings of, 84. Writes ' De Re Rus- 
tica ' in poetry, 168. His panegy- 
ric on Lucretius, 227. Praise of 
China — not author of ' Dirse,' 235. 
Plagiarisms from Varro Reatinus, 
236. His age favourable for poetic 
development — pre-eminent in — life 
written by T. Claudius Donatus, 237. 
Heyne's opinion of— fables in — his 
birth — orthography of name — not 
Roman citizen — his education— his 
studies, 238. Syron teaches both 
him and Varus the Epicurean philo- 
sophy — comes to Rome — deprived of 
his estate — patronized by Pollio — 
introduced to Maecenas — estate re- 
stored to him — enters coterie of 
Maecenas — goes with him to Brun- 
disium, 239. Resides at Naples — his 
wealth — his weak health, 240. Goes 
to Athens — dies on his voyage home 
— buried at Naples — his epitaph — 
his character — general esteem for, 
241. Parthenian, why so called — 
his modesty — generosity, 242. His 
poems : the < Culex,' ' Ciris,' 243 ; 
'Moretum,' 'Copa,' 'Bucolics,* 244. 
The 'Georgics,' 253. 'iEneid,' 257. 
Characteristics of — disparaged by 
Caligula, Markland, and Niebuhr, 263. 
Propertius, his panegyric on, 265. 
Gallus fellow - student with, 305. 
Befriended by him — praise of in 
fourth ' Eclogue ' — story of Aristous 
substituted for, 306. Tibullus, con- 
temporary with, 308. Reason for 
addressing ' Eclogue ' to Pollio, 363. 



Birth-day of, kept by S. It,dicus,464. 
Imitated by C. V. Flaccus, 467. 
Work of Columella supplemental to 
1 Georgics ' of, 547. 

Marsus, Domitius, his epigram on Ti- 
bullus, 308. 

Martialis, M. Valerius, praises Latinus 
and Paris, 215. Epitaph on, 216. 
Mentions Albinovanus, 325. His 
epigram on Livy — throws doubt on 
birth-place of, 394. Mentions Phaed- 
rus, 412. Epigram relating to 
Seneca, 426. Not genuine satirist, 
451. Epigram on C. V. Flaccus, 466. 
Epigrammatist — hisviciousness— his 
birth, 474. Patronized by Emperor 
— his discontent, 475. His marriage 
— distate for provincial life, 476. His 
death, 477. Personal appearance — 
his impurity, 478. Beauties of his 
poems — inequality of his works, 479. 
His vanity — specimens of poems, 
480. Praise of Quintilian, 535. 

Masks worn by Roman comic actors, 
80. 

Massinger, his play of ' Roman Actor ' 
— plot of, whence taken, 216. 

Massinissa, Cato arbitrates for, 160. 

Matronaha, Roman festival of, 105. 

Maurus, Terentianus, quotes from L. 
Andronicus ' tragedy of ' Ino,' 55. 

Maximus, Q. Fabius, bears cost of 
presentation of 'Adelphi ' of Terence, 
118. 

, Valerius, story of Attius related 

by, 138. His collection of anecdotes 
— object of — arrangement of — ac- 
count of himself— his style, 484. 

Medal of Caesar, legend on, 365. 

' Medea ' of Euripides, translated by 
Ennius, 75. 

, tragedy of Ovid — its character — 

Quintilian's praise of, 324. 

' Medicamina faciei,' (cosmetics) minor 
poem attributed to Ovid, 324. 

Mela, M. Annaeus, father of Lucan, 
supposed identical with P. Mela, 452. 

,Pomponius, geographer,his birth — 

treatise ' De Situ Orbis,' information 
derived from Greek sources— sim- 
plicity and purity of his style, 546. 

Memmii, the orators, 188. 

Memmius, friend of Lucretius, praetor, 
takes Catullus to Bithynia, 228. 

' Memorabilium, Dictorum Factorum- 
que,' Lib. ix., work of V. Maximus, 
collection of anecdotes, 484. 

Menander, fragments of, extant — their 

2q 



578 



INDEX. 



character — quoted by Christian 
fathers, 78. 'Epicurean' copied by 
Plautus, 92. Translated by Terence 
— lost at sea, 106. Terence's tran- 
scripts of, 109, 111, 115. Passages 
from ' Plocius,' and translation by A. 
Gellius, 99. His ' Phasma ' and 
' Thesaurus ' translated by Luscius, 
122. Blunders in, 123. 

' Menaechmi,' comedy of Plautus, said 
to be imitated from ' Epicharmus,' 
92. A ' Comedy of Errors ' — fur- 
nished plot for Shakspeare and Reg- 
nard, 94. 

' Mercator,' comedy of Plautus, revolt- 
ing state of morals depicted in, 92. 

Messala, patron of Tibullus — his actions 
sung by poets, 307. 

Messalina, her accusation against Seneca 
509. 

' Metamorphoses,' poem of Ovid — burnt 
by him, 316. Not corrected by him 
— extent of — character of — selections 
from — antiquarianism of, 322. 

Metaurus, battle of, Cato distinguished 
at, 159. 

Metelli, the, satirized by ISTaevius, 59. 

Metellus, Q., pronounces funeral oration 
over father — admired by Caesar and 
Pliny — address to Censors — pre- 
served by Livy, 181, His accusation 
against Cicero, 374. 

Metres of Attius, varied, 141. 

of Ennius, varied from Greek, 76. 

, the Greek, not natural to Latin, 

65. How adapted by Horace, 291. 

, Roman comic, their relation to 

music, 81. Effect of elision upon, 
83. 

of Terence and Plautus, how re- 
ducible — examples of, 86. 

Milan Library, palimpsest MS. in, 89. 

' Miles Gloriosus,' comedy of Plautus, 
the Boaster of Greek comedy, 94. 
Device in, borrowed from ' Phantom ' 
of Menander — plot of secrets, 95. 

' Mimiambi,' written by C. Matius, 212. 
V7hy so called, 213. 

JXilo, T. A., Cicero's defence of— cir- 
cumstances under which delivered — 
failure of, 347. 

Mimes, the Greek, written in prose — 
dialogues, 208. Exhibited at festi- 
vals, not on stage — Sophron most 
noted composer of — idylls of Theo- 
critus, and satires of Persius — imita- 
ted from, 209. 

, Roman, dramatic entertainments 



supersede tragedy and comedy — 
appellation, whence derived, 208. 
How differ from Greek — combine 
comedy and farce — pantomime — 
grew out of Tabulae Atellanae — their 
character — affinity to modern Italian 
pasquinades, 209. Schlegel's account 
of, written in verse — writers of, 210, 
et seq. 

Misenum, Pliny, Elder, commands fleet 
at, 519. 

, Pliny, Younger, remains at, during 

eruption of Vesuvius, 522. 

Mitylene, J. Caesar, receives civic crown 
at capture of, 373. 

Modes in music, Lydian, 81. Tyrian 
or Sarrane — Phrygian, 82. How used 
by Romans, 83. Musical, of Ter- 
ence's plays — 'The Andrian,' 107. 
* Eunuch,' 109. ' Adelphi/ 118. 

Moliere, materials for ' Les Fourberies 
de Scapin ' obtained from ' Phormio ' 
of Terence, 115. ' Ecole des Maris ' 
copied from 'Adelphi 'of Terence, 120. 

Molo, Rhodian rhetorician, Cicero 
studies under, 332. 

Molon, Apollonius, rhetorician, tutor 
to Caesar, 373. Cicero's testimony 
to — ambassador to Rome, 374. 

Montanus, elegiac poet — contemporary 
with Ovid, 326. 

' Mostellaria,' comedy of Plautus, plot 
of — name, diminutive of monstrum, 
94. 

Mucius, bon-mot of C. Syrus on, 214. 

Miiller, inscriptions said by him to be 
Pelasgian, 21. 

' Moretum,' poem of Virgil — origin of 
name — Bucolic, 244. 

Muretus, his imposition on Scaliger, 
123. Account of studies of Virgil, 
238. Characteristics of Tibullus, 
309. 

Mutina (Modena), battle of— date of 
Ovid's birth, 313. 

NiEVius, Attius, invention of Saturnine 
verse attributed to, 32. Statement 
of, respecting Cn. Naevius, 50. 

, Cneius, first Roman poet — so con- 
sidered by his countrymen — a citi- 
zen by birth — in spirit — a soldier in 
first Punic War — his honesty and mo- 
rality, 56. Friendship with Cato — 
epitaph of, criticized by A. Gellius — 
why thought a Campanian — birth un- 
known — death uncertain — Cicero's 
date of — wrote poems at advanced 



INDEX. 



579 



age- his epio, 'The Punic War' — 
earliest efforts dramatic — plots Gre- 
cian — supporter of the people, 57. 
Literary representative of anti-aris- 
tocratic party — uses literature as 
political engine — causes of vehe- 
mence, 58. Attacks S. Africanus 
and the Metelli — imprisoned — con- 
trition — again indulges in satire — 
exiled to Utica— his epitaph, 59. 
Homage paid him by best writers — 
his universal popularity— causes of — 
literary position intermediate, 60. 
II is comedy — personal character of — 
his epic — Roman character of — Virgil 
indebted to, 61. Drew inspiration 
from Homer — Ennius copies from — 
few fragments of his works extant — 
examples of, 62. Character of his 
poetry — undervalued by Horace — 
praised by Cicero — his works used 
in schools — poetry metrical, 63. In- 
troduces iambic and trochaic metres, 
64. Poems principally written in 
Satumian verse, 65. Contemporary 
with Cato, 157. 

Names in Roman comedy have meaning 
— examples of, 81. 

Naples, Virgil's favourite residence, 240. 
Buried at, 241. 

Naso, Ovidius — of Roman poets alone 
attains facility of versification, 65. 
His panegyric on Lucretius, 227. 
Hints as to crime of Gallus, 306. 
Alludes to mistresses of Tibullus, 307. 
Preserves fragment of Macer, 312. 
His birth and family — his brother — 
educated well — death of — rhetorical 
studies — their effect, 313. Seneca's 
account of — copies from Latro — ex- 
amples of — character of his rhetoric, 
314. Anecdote respecting poetry of 
— natural genius for poetry, 315. 
His indolence — rank and fortune — 
literary acquaintance — his wives — 
Epicurean, 316. His mistress Cor- 
rinna — his residences — journey to 
Asia and Sicily — life of enjoyment — 
banishment— cause of, unknown, 317. 
Conjectures respecting, 318. Place 
of banishment — respect of Tomitas 
for — his complaints, 319. Cultivates 
poetry in exile — his poems extant— 
'Amores' — 'Epistolas Heroidum,' 320. 
'Art of Love,' 321. 'Remedies of 
Love,' ' Metamorphoses,' 322. ' Fasti,' 
' Tristia,' 323. « Nux'— ' Ibis '—poems 
attributed to — poems in Getan lan- 



guage popular among barbarians — 
' Medea/ tragedy of — its character — 
criticism of Quintilian on — his cha- 
racter as a poet, 324. 

Natural history, work on, by Pliny the 
Elder, 506. 

philosophy, work on, by Pliny the 

Elder, 37. Storehouse of facts — 
marvellous traditions contained in, 
525. Analysis of, 526. 

' Navales Libri,' poem of V. Atacinus, 
236. 

Nemesis, mistress of Tibullus, real name 
unknown, 307. 

Nepos, Cornelius, his anecdote of Laelius, 
105. Description of Cato's ' Origines,' 
165. Contemporary of Catullus — 
opinion respecting birth, 370. Friend 
of Cicero and Atticus — nothing 
known of his history — his works lost 
— their titles — ' Chronicles ' — ' Libri 
Exemplorum ' — ' Life of Cicero' — 'De 
Historicis' — work attributed to him 
— ' Lives of Eminent Generals ' — 
account of — why considered spu- 
rious, 371. Evidence of authen- 
ticity, 372. 

Nero patronized dramatic literature, 
425. Jealous of Lucan — conspiracy 
against, by, 453. Lucan's flattery 
of — inscription attributed to, 454. 
Time of his death, 464. Seneca tutor 
to, 509. His parricide — causes death 
of Seneca, 510. Delivers funeral 
oration on Claudius, 513. 

Domitius, historical play of Ma- 

ternus in time of Vespasian, 128. 

Nerva, Juvenal probably lived till reign 
of, 446. Fitness of Trajan to suc- 
ceed, 485. 

Newton, W., opinions respecting date 
of Vitruvius Pollio, 407. 

Nicander, physician — his poem para- 
phrased by Macer, 312. 

Nicanor, Sasvius, grammarian, 206. 

Nicomedes, King of Bithynia — de- 
throned by brother — defended by 
Hortensius, 195. 

Niebelungen-Lied, Saturnians in, 35. 

Niebuhr, his remarks on composition 
of Latin language, 11. Asserts that 
in Social War Marsi spoke Oscan, 16. 
His opinion respecting slavery of 
L. Anclronicus, 51. Of his choice of 
'Odyssey' to translate, 52. Observ- 
ations on character of parasite in 
plays of Plautus, 88. Does not credit 
poverty of Plautus, 89. Supposition 

2 q2 



580 



INDEX. 



respecting Naevius, 148. Opinions 
respecting Fabius Pictor, 154. Recon- 
ciles chronology of C. Alimentus, 156. 
His opinion of Cato, 171. Of Piso, 
174. Defends v Macer — opinion of 
extent of work of Quadrigarius, 175. 
Discovers palimpsest MS. of 'Insti- 
tutes ' of Gaius — explanation of, suc- 
cessful, 201. Date of perfection of 
Roman literature, 207. Prejudices 
of — opinion of Catullus — of Virgil, 
231. Low opinion of Virgil — difficult 
to account for, 264. Undeserved 
censure on Tibullus, 308. Praise of 
poems attributed to him, 309. At- 
tributes book on African war to 
Hirtius, 378. Deplores loss of 
' Histories ' of Sallust, 388. Opinion 
of manner in which Livy wrote his 
history, 402. On his style, 405. 
Opinion of 'Punica' of S. Italicus, 
464. Of date of Suetonius' ' Lives of 
Caesars,' 500. Examples of his defi- 
ciency as historian, 502. His date 
for Q'. Curtius, 503. 

Niobe, statue of, expressive of Grecian 
tragic feeling, ] 32. 

Nisarcl, Etudes de (note) — comparison 
between essays and tragedies of 
Seneca, 428. 

Nobilior, M. Fulvius, reproached by 
Cato on account of Ennius, 67. 
Blamed by Cato, 144. 

1 Noctes Atticae,' of A. Gellius, epigram 
on Plautus by Varro in, 91. Frag- 
ments of Lucilius preserved in, 148. 

Nornentum, Domitian gives villa at, to 
Martial, 475. 

Novo Como — Como, two Plinys born 
at, 515, 528. 

Numerals, the Greek, compared with 
Latin, 22. 

, Latin, derived from Etruscan, 22. 

' Nux,' minor poem of Ovid, 324. 

' Octavian,' historical play of Seneca, 

128. . 
Octavius sacrifices Cicero, 338. 
Ode, . now sung in dramas of L. An- 

dronicus — similarity of to Greek hy- 

porcheme, 54. 
Odes of Horace, publication of, 278. 

Those attributed to him, 298. 
' Odyssey ' translated by L. Androni- 

cus, 51. 
' GEdipus,' poem of Caesar, suppressed 

by Augustus, 382. 
1 Old Age,' essay on, by Cicero, 357. 



Operarius, stage-carpenter, occupation 
of Plautus, 88. 

Opilius, Aurelius, grammarian, 206. 

Oppius, friend of Caesar, correspondent 
of Cicero, 362. Anecdote of Caesar's 
friendship for, 378. 

Orations, the six Verrian, by Cicero — 
their character and success, 344. 

Orators, Roman, 180 et seq. 

Oratory, Roman mind why directed to, 
149. Its origin and progress in 
Rome, 179 et seq. End and object 
of, 341. Charms of Cicero's, 343. Its 
character, 347. 

Orellius, his copy of Bantine Tables, 
17. 

1 Origines,' historical work of Cato, 
written in old age — history of Italy 
described by C. Nepos, 165. Its re- 
search and originality — honesty — 
fragments remaining, 166. Pathos — 
quoted by A. Gellius, 167. Not used 
by Livy, 401. 

Oscans, an Italian tribe, claim to be 
aboriginal, 7. Conquer Pelasgi in 
Latium, 10. Warlike, 1.1. Quasi- 
dramatic entertainments of, popular 
in Italy — characteristic language of 
— originate pantomime, 47. 

, language of — influence of — not 

related to Greek, 13. Remains of — 
composite with Sabellian — dra- 
matic literature of — when introduced 
■ — understood by Samnites — spoken 
by Marsi, 16. Coins struck in — 
spoken after establishment of Em- 
pire, 17. Principal monuments in 
— Bantine Tables— relation to Latin, 
17. Words of, in Bantine Tables, 
18. 

Osci, or Opici, derivation of, equivalent 
to clvtqxOovcs — country possessed by, 
invade that of Sikeli, 8. 



Pacuvianus, author of pasquinades on 
Tiberius, 417. 

Pacuvius, M., Roman tragic writer of 
second era — palm in tragedy given 
to, by Cicero — bad Latinity of, 100. 
Contemporary with Terence — native 
of Brundisium — nephew of Ennius — 
resides at Rome — a painter — died at 
Tarentum— epigram on, preserved 
by Aulus Gellius — with whom a 
favourite, 136. Commended by 
Cicero — character of his language — 
tragedies of, not merely translations 



[NDEX. 



581 



— plan of original — his works— titles 
preserved, 'Antiopa,' 'Dulorestes' — 
most celebrated, 130. ' Paulus ' — 
— wrote one Satura, and one comedy, 
• M creator,' 137. Friend of Attius, 
138. 

Palaemon, Remmius, tutor to Persius, 
434. 

Pancetius, his friendship with Scipio 
JEmilianus, 183. 

Panegyric on Augustus by Varius, 305. 
On Trajan, by Younger Pliny, 529. 

Pantomime, how different from mime 
— character of, 214. Objected to by 
Christians — actors in — licentious — 
Nero performs in, 215. 

Papirius, Sextus, codifies ' Leges Regioe,' 
201. Jurist — pupil of M. Scsevola, 
205. 

Parabasis of Greek comedy in prologue 
of Plautus, 97. 

'Paradoxa,' philosophical treatise of 
Cicero, 317. 

Parasite — character frequent in plays of 
Plautus — Niebuhr's observations on 
— readily naturalized in Rome — ac- 
count of, by Horace and Juvenal, 
88. 

' Parerga,' a work of Attius, 141. 

Parthenias, epithet of Virgil, origin of, 
242 

Parthenius, native of Bithyna — Virgil 
studies philosophy under, 238. 

Paris, actor of pantomime, teaches Nero 
to dance — his rival — put to death by 
him, 215. Martial's opinion of — his 
influence and 'profligacy — furnishes 
plot to Massinger — his epitaph, 216. 
Juvenal's satire on — its conse- 
quences, 445. 

Patavinity ascribed to Livy by Pollio 
— uncertain meaning of word, 364. 
What to be understood by — 
Niebuhr's opinion respecting, 405. 

Patavium (Padua), birthplace of Livy 
—why doubtful, 394. C. V. Flaccus 
born at, 466. 

Paterculus, M. Vellius, 482. His life- 
work — its character and extent, 483. 
MS. of, lost, 484. 

Paullina, wife of Seneca, her heroism, 
510. 

'Paulus,' historical play of Pacuvius, 
128. Subject of, 137. 

, L. iEmilius, the ' Hecyra ' of Ter- 
ence presented at funeral of, 116 ; 
also the ' Adelphi,' 118. Conqueror 
of Persius, 137. Father of Scipio 



iEmilianus — his campaign in Greece, 
183. His library, 364. 

Pelasgians in Italy, 9. Conquered by 
Oscans, 10. 

, language of, how united with Um- 

brian and Oscan, 11, 12. Connected 
with Greek, 13. Affinity to Greek 
and Sanscrit, 13 (note). Inscriptions 
in — digamma characteristic of — de- 
rived from iEolic, 21. Element of 
Etruscan most influencing Latin, 22. 

'Peleus and Thetis,' epithalamium of 
Catullus, character of, 229. Ex- 
ample of, 232. 

Pennus, M. Junius, orator, his opposi- 
tion to Gracchus, 186. 

Perilla, daughter of Ovid, 317. Epistle 
to, 323. 

Perotto, N., bishop of Manfredonia, 
published new fables of Phsedrus, 
413. 

Perugia, Etruscan inscription at — its 
language and contents, 19. 

' Persa,' comedy of Plautus, slender 
plot of, 96. 

Persius, see Flaccus. 

Petrarch, his praise of Horace, 282. 

Petronius, extract from speech of 
Scipio JEmilianus, 127. 

Phcedrus,Epicureanphilosopher,teaches 
Cicero, 332-355. Wrote in transi- 
tion period — translated iEsop — his 
own biographer — little known of — a 
freedman, 411. How far original — 
mentioned by Martial and Seneca — 
— works little known — MSS. of, few 
— reasons for genuineness disputed, 
412. Evidence of date of works — 
MS., how discovered — fables supposed 
to be written by N. Perotto — pub- 
lished as genuine by Angelo Mai — 
moral of fables suggested by circum- 
stances of times, 413. Examples of, 
414, 415. Historical events— ex- 
amples of, 41 7, 41 8 . Character of his 
writings, 420. Inferior to iEsop, 422. 
Style of — compared with other fabu- 
lists, 423. 

'Phagetica' of Archestratus, translated 
by Ennius — its character, 76. 

Phallus, emblem of fertility, how con- 
nected with Roman satire, 46. 

Pharsalia, Varro pardoned after battle 
of, 365. 

, poem of Lucan, its sentiments, 

454. Subject of — description of, 455. 
Materials for, whence derived, 456. 
Compared with poems of Homer and 



582 



INDEX. 



Virgil, 458. Description principal 
feature in, 459. Examples from, 460. 

' Phasma,' comedy of Menander, trans- 
lated by Luscius, 122. 

Philemon, Greek comedian, fragments 
of comedies of — their character — 
quoted by Christian fathers, 78. 
Copied by Plautus, 92. 

Philips' ' Cyder,' poem of, imitated from 
Virgil, 257. 

Philippic orations of Cicero, when de- 
livered — their success and conse- 
quences, 338. Why so named — 
opinions of Juvenal respecting, 34.9. 

Phihppi, battle of, conduct of Horace 
at, 271. 

Philo, philosopher, presides at Athens 
over New Academy — teaches Cicero, 
332. Eclecticism of, congenial to 
Cicero, 355. 

Philologus, Atteius, grammarian, 405. 

Philosophy, Eoman, its origin and cha- 
racter — unfitness of language for — 
study of literary — Cicero's view of — 
characteristics of, 352. Its defects 
— early instructors in, 353. First 
form of Epicurean, 354. Its profes- 
sors — Stoicism, how adopted into — ■ 
its professors — influence on Cicero, 
355. His practical application of, 
356. 

Phoenicians, how allied to Etruscans, 9. 

1 Phcenissse ' of Euripides, translated by 
Attius, 139. 

' Phormio,' comedy of Terence, adapted 
from Apollodorus — why so called — 
when acted — plot of, 114. Copied 
by Moliere, 115. 

Pictor, C. Fabius, painter, surpasses 
Pacuvius, 135. 

, Fabius Q., most ancient writer of 

Eoman history — contemporary with 
Naevius — his family — ancestor 
painted temple of Salus — literary 
taste of family, 153. Referred to by 
Livy — principal authority of Dion 
Cassius and Appian — Niebuhr's 
opinion of — wrote in defence of his 
country against Philinus — in Greek 
— subject, first and second Punic 
Wars, 154. Object of his work — ma- 
terials for, 155. 

, S. F., writer of annals and trea- 
tise on pontifical law, 173. Juris- 
consult, 203. 

Pilitus, L. Otacilius, Roman historian, 
works. little known, 177. 

Piso, L. Calpurnius Frugi, consul at 



death of C. Gracchus, censor the 
year after, historical writer, quoted 
by Dionysius and Livy— less trust- 
worthy than F. Pictor — anecdote of 
Romulus quoted by Cn. Gellius, 173. 
Origin of name — Niebuhr's charge 
against, 174. 

Piso, L. C. Csesoninus, Cicero's oration 
against — its coarseness, 346. 

, C. Calpurnius, tragic poet, his 

conspiracy against Nero, 454. 

Pius, J, Baptista, continues ' Argonau- 
tica ' of C. V. Flaccus. 

, epithet of iEneas, how applicable 

to Augustus, 262. 

Plagiarisms in Virgil, examples of, 260. 

Plautus, T. Maccius, language of, 7. 
Customs of Etruscans alluded to by, 
9. Comedies of, exception to gene- 
ral rule, 79. Contemporary with 
Ennius — native of Sarsina — resides 
in Rome — station humble — influence 
on writings — class represented by h im 
— his plots, personages, and scenes, 
Greek — parasite characteristic of 
his comedies, observed by Niebuhr — 
his occupation — cognomen, origin of 
proved by Ritzschl — how used, 88. 
Ethnic — error, how perpetuated — 
discovered by Ritzschl — origin of 
name Plautus — his earliest comedies 
— only rival very inferior — works 
suited to genius of Romans — had.no 
aristocratic patrons, 89. Taste not 
sufficiently defined — Horace objects 
to him on that account — popular 
with the masses — character of his 
writings given by Horace — nation- 
ality of style, Latin, 90. Familiar — 
coarseness not open — this praised by 
Cicero— laudatory epigram by Varro 
— popular during five centuries — 
never full Roman citizen, 130. Come- 
dies attributed to him — twenty extant 
considered genuine by Varro — with 
'Vidularia' — rest doubtful — origi- 
nals, Menander, Diphilus, and Phile- 
. mon — imitated by modern writers — 
subjects of those extant — 'Aniphi- 
truo,' ' Asinaria,' ' Casina,' Mercator,' 
' Aulularia,' 92. ' Bacchides,' ' Cap- 
tivi,' ' Curculio,' ' Cistellaria,' 93. 
' Epidicus,' ' Mostellaria,' ' Mensech- 
mi,' ' Miles Gloriosus, 94. ' Pseu- 
dolus, ' ' Pcenulus, ' 95. ' Persa,' 
1 Rudens, ' Stichus, ' ' Trinummus,' 
96. 'Truculentus,' his prologues com- 
pared with modern or Greek, 97. 



INDEX. 



5S3 



Plebiscite decrees of the people, 202. 
Plinius, .see Secundus. 
Plotina, wife of Trajan, her influence 
on society in Rome, 185. 

riutareh compares Cato to Socrates, 
170. 

Tumulus,' comedy of Plautus — name 
whence derived — plot of — Hanno, 
character in, talks Pimic — resem- 
blance to Hebrew — how translated, 
95. 

Poetry, Roman, earliest attempt at — 
Feseennine verses, 44. Contrast be- 
tween Roman and Grecian, 138. 
Not standard of literature in Au- 
gustan age, 207. Golden age of, 208. 

Poggius discovers MS. of works of 
Quintilian, S. Italicus, and L. V. 
Flaccus, at St. GaU, 540. 

Pollio, title of fourth eclogue of Virgil, 
originality of subject, 249. Para- 
phrase of Sibylline verses in, com- 
pared with writings of Isaiah, 250. 

, C. Asinius, his tragedies intended 

only for recitation, 208. His cha- 
racter — commands in Cisalpine Gaul 
— patronizes Virgil, 239. Patronizes 
Gallus, 305. Correspondent of Cicero, 
362. Family and birth — employed 
by Caesar — appointed to Gallia Trans- 
padana — protects Virgil — reconciles 
Octavian and Anthony —his triumph- 
retires from public life — devotes him- 
self to study — old age — his children 
— literary reputation — works lost — 
reasons for, 363. Style — opinion of 
Quintilian and Niebuhr — his works 
— history of civil wars — his criticisms 
— founds public library, 364. By 
whom imitated — founds library in 
Temple of Liberty, 365. His criti- 
cism on J. Caesar, 380. Compared 
to Sophocles by Virgil, 425. 

, M. Vitruvius, writer of Augustan 

age — his character — confounded with 
L. Vitruvius Cerdo — birth and edu- 
cation — learning — object of studies 
professional, 406. Military engineer 
under Csesar — patronized by Augus- 
tus — evidence respecting date of his 
works — his style, 407. Contents of 
his ten books — conspectus of princi- 
ples of architecture — his taste — his 
work, 408. 

Polybius, his estimation of F. Pictor, 
1-34. Comes to Rome in time of 
Cato, 158. His friendship for Scipio 
iEmilianus, 183. Extracts from, tran- 



scribed by Lucullus, 370. Followed 
by Livy — an accurate geographer — 
his preparation for writing history 
of Italy, 401. Disapproves imagi- 
nary speeches in history, 404. 

Pomfrefs elegy on Queen Mary imitated 
from fifth eclogue of Virgil, 247. 

Pompeius, Sextus, V. Maximus accom- 
panies, into Asia, 484. 

, Trogus, historian of Augustan 

age — father secretary to Julius 
Caesar — work voluminous — ' His- 
torian Philippicae,' 392. How di- 
gresses into universal history — in- 
debted to Greek historians — analysis 
of, 393. 

Pompey the Great, Lucilius grand- 
uncle to — supports Cicero for Con- 
sulship, 334. Deserts Cicero, 335. 
Joined by Cicero before battle of 
Pharsalia, 337. Party of, espoused 
by V. Reatinus and L. Lucullus, 370. 
Admired by Livy, 395. 

Pomponianus, his villa at Stabise — hears 
of death of elder Pliny, 520. 

Pomponius, manual of earliest work 
on Roman jurisprudence — fragments 
of, preserved by Justinian, 201. 

Ponticus, guest of Ovid, 316. 

Pontifex Maximus, office held by J. 
Caesar — literary consequence of, 375. 
Annals of, digested by Livy, 400. 

' Pontius Glaucus,' poem of Cicero ex- 
tant in time of Plutarch, 331. 

Pope, his opinion on political object of 
JEneid, 261. Imitates epigram of 
Hadrian, 473. 

Praeneste Palestrina, summer retreat of 
Horace, 276. 

Praetorum Libri, account of, 44. 

' Pragmaticon, Libri,' by Attius, quoted 
by Nonius and A. Gellius, 141. 

Priests, Roman — civil magistrates, con- 
sequences of connexion, 130. 

Priscus, C, Pliny's epistle to — death of 
Martial mentioned in, 477. 

, Marius, impeached by Tacitus, 

486. 

Probus, author of work attributed to 
C. Nepos, 371. Authority for, 372. 

Proculus, elegiac poet — contemporary 
with Ovid, 326. 

Prologues of Plautus compared with 
the Greek and modern, 97. Of the 
Amphitruo and Trinummus their 
character, 78. 

' Prometheus ' of Attius, fragment of — 
its grandeur — quoted by Cicero, 134. 



584 



INDEX. 



Propertius, S. Aurelius, his praise of 
Virgil exaggerated, 265. Little 
known of— life — native of Umbria — 
his birth and estate, 309. His edu- 
cation — literary connexion — amour 
with Cynthia — epigram of Martial on 
— imitates Alexandrian poets, 310. 
Genius not natural — his versification 
and style — Quintilian's account of — 
compared with Ovid — inventor of 
elegiac epistle, 311. Recites his com- 
positions to Macer, 316. 

Prose more accordant with Roman 
genius than poetry — literature di- 
rected to by political causes, 149. 
Treatment required — style of Eastern 
writers of, 150. Later writers of, 
482, 

' Protagoras ' of Plato, translated by 
Cicero, 357. 

Ptolemy, accurate geographer, 401. 

Punic language spoken by Hanno in 
play of Plautus, 95. 

War, epic of Cn. Nsevius on, 56. 

' Punica,' poem of S. Italicus, its cha- 
racter — model and materials for, 464. 
Example from, 465. 

Pupillus Orbilius, schoolmaster, uses 
works of Naevius, 63. Why called 
Plagosus — teaches Horace, 270. 

Puteoli, Lselius, villa at, 105. 

Pylades, actor in pantomime, 215. 

Quadeigarius, Q. Claudius, historian 
— contemporary with Cicero, 174. 
Quoted by Livy and grammarians — 
extent of work — fragment of relating 
to M. Torquatus— style of, 175. Why 
so called, 176. 

' QuEestionura Naturalium,' Lib. vn. — 
work on natural history, by Seneca, 
513. 

Quinctius, P., Cicero's defence of — 
legal knowledge shown in, 344. 

Quinquatria, festival of Minerva, birth- 
day of Ovid and his brother, 313. 

Quirinal, Sallust's gardens on, 386. 

Quintilianus, M. Pabius, his account 
of scenic modulations, 82. Opinion 
of Ennius, 71. Of Lucilius, 146. 
Could not appreciate Catullus, 230. 
Praises V. Atacinus, 236. Epithet 
for poetry of Gallus, 306. Estimate 
of Propertius, 311. Criticism on 
Cicero, 343. On Pollio, 364. Adu- 
lation of Domitian — reasons for title 
'Silvse' to poems of Statius, 472. 
Caution against brevity of Sallust, 



391. Epithet for style of Livy, 404. 
Panegyric on Persius, 438. Account 
of death of C. V. Flaccus, 466. 
Criticism on, 467. Tutor to Younger 
Pliny, 528. His birth — return to 
Rome with Galba — success as a 
pleader and teacher of rhetoric, 534. 
Not wealthy — Pliny's generosity to — 
daughter's marriage — Martial's praise 
of — his works — the ' Institutiones,' 
536. Opinions on education, 537. 
His declamations — works discovered 
by Poggius — his disposition, 540. 
Example of his eloquence, 541. 

Racine imitates Seneca, 432. 

Rasena, or Tyrseni, name of Pelasgians 

in Etruria — its origin, according to 

Lepsius — adopted by Donaldson, 10. 
Reate (Rieti), Varro born at, 365. 
Refrain in eighth Eclogue of Virgil, 248. 
Regulus, story of, related by Tubero, 

178. 
Religion, its influence on Greeks and 

Romans contrasted, 129. 
, influence of, on Greek and Roman 

literature, 40. The Roman not popu- 
lar — its poetry rude, 41. 
'Remedies of Love,' poem of Ovid, 

322. 
'Republic,' of Cicero, not archaically 

correct, 341. 
' Rerum Romanorum,' Lib. iv., work of 

L. A. Florus, see ' Epitome,' 505. 
Retina, Elder Pliny endeavours to save 

troops at, 519. 
Rhseti, language of, 9. Livy acquainted 

with, 16. 
Rhodians, Cato pleads cause of, 160. 
Rhodius, Apollonms, his ' Argonautica ' 

translated by V. Atacinus, 236. 
Rhyme added to rhythm — time when, 

not ascertained, 38. 
Rhythm, natural to Italian poetry, both 

in ancient and modern times, 65. 
Ritzschl discovers origin of name 

Asinius, as applied to Plautus, 89. 
Romans, character of, how cultivated, 

42. 
■ , character of action — mind of, not 

imaginative — literature of, not spon- 
taneous, 41. Influence of Greek 

literature upon, 42. 
Roscius, Roman actor, his wealth and 

rank — friend of Cicero, 208. 
, S., of Ameria, Cicero's defence of, 

332. Its character, 344. 
' Rudens,' comedy of Plautus — name, 



INDEX. 



585 



whence derived — estimation of plot 

— character, !H>. 

Budiee, in Calabria, Ennius born at, 67. 

Rums, Cuelius, orator, correspondent of 
Cicero, 362. 

, Q. Cnrtius, biographer of Alex- 
ander the Great — uncertainty of date 
of — opinion of Niebuhr respecting, 
503. Of Wolf — internal evidence of 
— his partiality, 504. 

, P. Rutilius, wrote autobiography 

in Latin, and history of Rome in 
Greek, 174. 

, Salvidianus, ridiculed by Horace 

as Nasidianus, 308. 

, Sulpicius, friend of Cicero, joins 

the Marians, 340. 

, C.Valgius, his tragedies not writ- 
ten to be acted, 208. Obscurity re- 
specting notices of by Pliny and 
Horace, 235. 

, Valerius, his tragedies only in- 
tended for reading, 208. 

■ , L. Yarius, tragic writer — his 

' Thyestes ' — opinions of critics on — 
when presented — profit from, 125. 
Guest of Maecenas — little known of 
— praised by Quintilian, 304. Goes 
with Maecenas to Brundisium — title 
of works of — Niebuhr's conjecture re- 
specting — fellow-student with Gallus, 
305. 

, Virginius, Tacitus succeeds as 

Consul, 486. Guardian of Younger 
Pliny, 528. 

Sabellians, or Sabines, of same family 

as Umbrians and tribes of Italy — 

of same stock as Oscans, 7. 
Sabello-Oscan, principal monument of, 

Bantine Table, 17. 
Sabine virgins, number of, estimated 

by V. Antias, 176. 
Sabines, or Sabellians, 7-9. Dominant 

in Samnium, 16. 
Sabinus, A., known only through Ovid 

— his epistles — his other works, 326. 
Sacerdos, Nicetes, tutor to Younger 

Pliny — favourable mention made of 

by Seneca, 528. 
Salinator, M. Livius, L. Andronicus 

tutor to children of — emancipates 

him, 51. 
Sallustius, C. Crispus, his opinion of 

Sisenna, 177. Style of Paterculus 

formed on that of, 483. His birth — 

family — offices — expelled from senate 

— cause of degradation— restored by 



Caesar — governor of Numidia— ra- 
pacity — wealth, 385. His gardens — 
death — his immorality — why pro- 
bable — character as politician, 386. 
As a historian — compared with Thu- 
cydides — speech of Memmius re- 
ported by him, 387. Reasons for 
writing only detached portions of 
history — his works : the ' Jugurthine 
War ;' < Histories ;' ' Bellum Catili- 
nariuni' — letters to Caesar, genuine- 
ness of, disputed, 388. Opposes new 
aristocracy — his description of, 389. 
Character as an historian — Livy. how 
indebted to— his brevity— contrasted 
with that of Thucydides, 391. Caesar 
and Tacitus — object always percep- 
tible, 392. 

Samnites, use Oscan language same as 
Sabines, 16. 

Samnium, Sabines dominant in, 16. 

Sarsina, in Umbria, birthplace of Plau- 
tus, 87. 

Sasernae, father and son, writers — ' De 
Re Rustica,' 168. 

' Satirae,' or ' Saturas,' of Ennius, 75. 

Satire, modern word, whence derived, 
49. Peculiar characteristic of Roman 
literature, 45. In origin coarse— 
polished on Greek models — founded 
by Lucilius, 46. Invention of, attri- 
buted to Romans— spirit of, apparent 
among Greeks — in Silli — form of 
comedyin opinion of Horace — Ennius 
first uses name — Lucilius father of, 
144. 

' Satires ' of Horace, when commenced 
— materials for, 273. Literary po- 
sition of — character, 287. Social, not 
political — object — sources, 288. Sub- 
jects of, 289. 

of Juvenal, description of — two 

first imitated by Johnson — tenth 
recommended by Bishop Burnet to 
his clergy, 

Satura, union of Etruscan ballet with 
Ludi Osci, 49. Origin of word satire 
— altered by L. Andronicus, 50. 
Written by Pacuvius, 137. 

1 Satura?,' moral essays of Varro Rea- 
tinus, 366. 

' Saturio,' title of early comedy of Plau- 
tus — not extant, 89. 

Saturnian measure, characteristic of old 
Latin verse— used in Arvalian and 
Salian hymn, 23. Oldest measure 
used by Latin poets — Etruscan — 
attributed by Diomedes the grain- 



586 



INDEX. 



marian to Naevius — how formed — 
T. Mauras and Atilius think it of 
Greek origin, 32. Greek analysis of, 
by Servius and Censorinus — in writ- 
ings of Callimachus and Euripides — 
introduced, according to Bentley, by 
Naevius from Greece — found in writ- 
ings of Archilochus — coincidence ac- 
cidental — recognized vehicle of early 
Italian poetry — discernible in Eugu- 
bine tables — more perfect in Arva- 
lian chants and Salian hymns — and 
epitaphs of Scipo's found in fragments 
of Roman laws, considered rude by 
Ennius, 33. Not Greek — Horace, 
opinion of — passages of Livy origi- 
nally in — restored by Hermann, 34. 
1 Odyssey,' translated into, by L. An- 
dronicus — structure simple — use 
universal — examples quoted by Ma- 
caulay, 35. Structure of, trochaic — 
ictus its essential — anacrusis not 
so, 36. Example from Milton — re- 
turn to in later periods of Roman 
literature — examples from Hadrian 
to Floras, and hymns of Christian 
Church, 37. Origin of romance 
poetry — rhyme added to — example 
quoted from Gray, 38 — Triple time, 
used by Naevius, 64. 

Scaevola, Q. Mucius, tutor to C. A. 
Gallus, 204. C. Juventius, S. Papi- 
rius, L. L. Balbus, and S. Rums, who 
quotes his works, 205. Teaches 
Cicero jurisprudence, 331. Origi- 
nates treatise 'De Oratore ' of Cicero, 
193. Rebukes S. Sulpicius, 194. 

, Publius, cousin of Quintus the 

augur — reputation as a jurist, 203. 

, Quintus, son of Publius, orator, 

188. Tutor to Cicero on death of 
uncle — estimation of Cicero for, 
203, 

, Q., augur, instructor of Cicero, 

203. 

Scaevolae, the family of, eminent as juris- 
consults, 203. 

Scaliger, anecdote of imposition on 
Muretus, 123. Attributes >Dirae' 
to Cato, 235. Applies five Eclogues 
of Virgil to Caesar, 247. . Criticism 
on Y. Flaccus, 467. 

Scaurus, M. iEruilius, orator, Bt>ened by 
Statius, 186. Autobiographer — his 
paternity — fragments of works of — 
unimportant, 174. 

Schlegel, conjectures on Roman mimes, 
210. 



Schoel, his surmise respecting banish- 
ment of Ovid, 318. 

Scipio, Barbatus, inscription on tomb 
of, 26. 

' Lucius, his epitaph, 27. 

, P. C. Africanus Major, satirized 

by Naevius, 59. Epitaph on, by 
Ennius, 68. Patron of Ennius, 69. 
Bears part cost of representation of 
' Adelphi ' of Terence, 118. His ora- 
tory — triumph of, on anniversary of 
battle of Zama, 182. 

, P. C. iEmilianus, his epithet for 

Roman people, 127. Lucilius with 
at siege of Numantia, 145. Link 
between old and new schools of ora- 
tory — his character — first campaign 
in Greece — friendship with Polybius 
and Panaetius — remonstrates against 
degeneracy of Romans, 183. Friend- 
ship for Laelius — comparison between 
them, 184. 

— — , P. Nasica, his services as jurist, 
how remunerated, 203. 

Scrofa, TremeUius, writer — ' De Re Rus- 
tica ' — eloquence celebrated by Colu- 
mella, 168. 

Secundus, C. Plinius, praises P. Syrus, 
213. Considers Umbrians most 
ancient people of Italy, 215. His 
birth — education — offices — particu- 
lars of life, and catalogue of works in 
letter of Pliny's nephew to Macer, 515. 
Character and habit of life, 517. His 
death, 518. Described by his nephew 
in letter to Tacitus, 519. His natural 
philosophy, 524. His credulity, 525. 
His philosophical belief, 527. His 
work on medicine, 545. 

, C. P. Caecilius, speaks of Seneca 

as a poet, 426. His story of Lucan, 
453. Account of death of S. Italicus, 
463. Criticisms on, 464. Letter to 
Priscus — date uncertain — death of 
Martial mentioned in, 477. Admira- 
tion for Tacitus — kindness to, 485. 
Letters to, 486. Friend of Suetonius, 
499. Influence exercised by, 500. 
Sextus son to C. Plinius Secundus — 
his birth — educated by Virginius 
Rufus — his letter to Voconius — his 
tutors, 528. Taste for poetry — 
celebrity as a pleader — offices — 
founds school at Como — his works, 

529. Despatch respecting Christians, 

530. Reply of Trajan to, 532. Ex- 
amples of taste, 533. Pupil of Quin- 
tilian, 535. 



INDEX. 



587 



Secundus, Pompouius, life of, by Elder 
Pliny, 516. 

Sedigitus, Volcatius, critic and gram- 
marian, his order of merit to writers 
of comedy, 86. Incorrect, 87. 

Sedley, Sir C., plot of his ' Bellamira ' 
suggested by ' Eunuchus ' of Terence, 
111. 

Sejanus, JElius, attacked by Phaedrus, 
413. Example of, in < Fables ' of, 415, 
416, 417. His ambition, 419. Pas- 
sage in Juvenal describing fall of, 449. 
Paterculus involved in, 483. 

, L., kinsman of iElius, his mockery 

of Tiberius, 417. 

Senatus-Consulta, acts of the Senate, 
202. 

Seneca, L. Annaeus, tragedies of, only 
written to be read, 125. Rhetorical 
dramas of, 134. Praises P. Syrus, 213. 
Opinion of Maecenas, 303. Preserves 
fragment of epic of Albinovanus, 326. 
Of Aufidius Bassus — addresses his 
' Oonsolatio ' to daughter of, 482. 
Philosopher — tragedies attributed to 
— possibly genuine, yet doubtful — 
reasons for — epigram of Martial re- 
specting, 426. Opinion of Sidonius 
concerning — a Stoic — his inconsis- 
tency, 427. Indifference to death — 
comparison of passages in works of, 
by Nisard, 428, 429. His fatalism, 
430. How suitable to circumstances 
of period — evidence of genuineness 
of tragedies — tragedies, model of 
those of French school of Racine and 
Corneille, 432. Acquainted with Per- 
sius, 436. His birth — education 
— jealousy of Caligula — his banish- 
ment — recalled by Agrippina — tutor 
to Nero, 509. His want of principle 
— his riches, how acquired — his 
death, 510. Want of moral courage 
— his works, 511. His philosophy — 
a favourite with Christian writers, 
512. Works on natural phenomena 
— his satire, 513. His style, 514. 
Uncle of Lucan, 452. 

, M. Annaeus, father of Lucius, 426. 

grandfather of Lucan, 452. His birth- 
place — a rhetorician, 507. His works 
— historical value of ' Controversiae,' 
508. 
'Sententiae, P. Syri,' collection of pro- 
verbial sayings, 214. 
Servilianus, Q. Fabius Max., historian — 

style. deficient in euphony, 172. 
Servius' account of Pontine annals, 43. 



Setia, Sezzo, in Campania, supposed 

birthplace of C. V. Flaccus, 466. 
Shadwell, his ' Squire of Alsatia ' copied 

from 'Adelphi' of Terence, 120. 
' Shepherd's Week,' poem of Gay, pa- 
rody of Sixth Eclogue of Virgil, 251. 
Sibillant, how used in old Latin — inter- 
changed with r, 31. 
Sibyl, the Tiburtine, dwelling of, 284. 
Sibyls, songs of, prophetical — Bishop 
Lowth's belief in inspiration of — 
opinions of Christian Fathers on — of 
Heyne — Virgil's quotation from, 250. 
Sicily, Cicero quaestor in, 332. Town 
in, called Italica, mentioned by Ste- 
phens, 462. 
Sikeli, third tribe of ancient Italy — 

called Vituli and Itali, 7. 
Silures, successful campaign of Fron- 

tinus against, 548. 
' Silvae/ poems of P. P. Statius — cha- 
racter of, 469. Why so called, 470. 
Subj ects of, 47 1 . Quintilian's account 
of, 472. 
Silvinus, friend of Columella, preface 
of his ' De Re Rustica ' addressed to, 
547. 
Sisenna, L. Cornelius, historian — birth 
— quaestor — Cicero's account of — ■ 
Sallust's less favourable — his work — 
fragments of — quoted by gramma- 
rians, 177. Friend of Cicero, 388. 

, Fulvia, mother of Persius, 434. 

Slavery, its effect on Roman society, 79. 

Its consequences at Rome, 267. 
'Smyrna,' poem of Cinna — praised by 

Virgil and Catullus, 235. 
Socrates, Cato compared with, 170. 
Soliloquies in Roman drama — how dif- 
ferent from dialogue — abundant in 
Terence — Donatus, account of (note), 
82. 
Sophocles, ' Trachiniee ' of, translated by 

Attius, 139. 
Spain, Cato consul in, 159. Prosecutes 

governor of, 160. 
Spanish war, book on, attributed to J. 

Caesar — its character, 378. 
Spectacle, introduced on Roman stage 
by L. Andronicus, 56. Roman love 
of, 131-133. 
' Squire of Alsatia,' ShadwelTs comedy 

of, whence copied, 120. 
Statirae, viha of Pomponianus at, 523. 
Statius, Caecilius, rival of Plautus — in- 
ferior to, 89. Placed by Cicero at 
head of comic poets — a slave — his 
birth — death — contemporary wit! I 



588 



INDEX. 



Eniiins — comedies ' Palliatae ' — only 
fragments of, remain — translation of 
Menander, 99. Opinion of A. Gellius, 
Cicero, Varro, and Horace — example 
of style — his early want of success, 
100. How at length attained, 101. 
His reception of Terence, 102. His 
poem to widow of Lucan, extract 
from, 453. 

Statius, P. Papinius, grammarian, tutor 
to Domitian — his success as a poet — 
character of his poetry, 463. 

, P. P., junior, son of above, 468. 

His poems — birth — only mentioned 
by Juvenal — opinion of Dante re- 
specting — character of his genius — 
his minor poems, 469. His epics 
— contrast between them, 470. Com- 
pared with Homer— subjects of his 
poems, 471. 

Steele, Sir R., copies 'Andrian' of 
Terence, 108. Opinion of ' Heauton- 
timorumenos,' 111. 

Stella, poet, friend of Statius and Mar- 
tial — former addresses his ' Silvae ' to 
him, 471, 476. 

Stephens supposes C. S. Italicus born 
in Sicily, 462. 

' Stichus,' comedy of Plautus — named 
after slave — plot of, 96. 

Stilo, L. iElius, grammarian, accom- 
panies L. Nutellus into exile, 206. 
Antiquary, tutor of V. Reatinus, 365. 

Stoic philosophy, in harmony with 
Roman mind — disciples of — not 
suited to Cicero, 355. Morality of, 
admired by, 356. Influence of, in 
time of Seneca, 427. 

Strabo, accurate geographer, 401. 

' Stratagematicon,' treatise on military 
tactics by Frontinus — anecdotes of 
military commanders, 547. 

' Studiosus,' title of treatise on elo- 
quence, by Elder Pliny, 516. 

' Suasoriee,' work of M. Seneca on deli- 
berative oratory, 509. 

Suessa Aurunca, birthplace of Lucilius, 
144. 

Suetonius — see Tranquillus. 

Suicide, why attractive to Romans in 
time of Seneca, 428. 

Suidas attributes invention of panto- 
mime to Augustus, 214. His cata- 
logue of works of Suetonius defective, 
500. 

Sulla, L. C, Fabulse Atellanee, amuse- 
ment of, 48. State of Rome under, 
142. Cause of, espoused by Horten- 



sius, 195. His commentaries com- 
pleted by Epicadius, 206. Elevates 
Roscius to equestrian dignity, 208. 
Plunders Athenian libraries, 364. 

Sulmo Sulmone, town of, Abruzzi, Ovid 
born at, 313. 

Sulpicius Publius, orator, 188. Tragic 
poem of — his letters of condolence 
to Cicero — rebuked by Sceevola — 
studies Roman law, 194. 

Syron, Virgil studies Epicurean philo- 
sophy under, 239. Poem on villa of, 
244. Represented as Silenus in 
Sixth Eclogue of Virgil, 251. 

Syrus, Publius, freedman and pupil of 
Laberius — their contest, 210. Origi- 
nally a Syrian — commended by Cicero, 
Seneca, and Pliny, 213. His wit — 
sentential, 214. 



Tables, the twelve, laws of, quoted by 
Livy — by Pliny — fragments preserved 
— collected by Haubold and Donaldson 
— how engraved — when made public 
— examples of, 25. Framework of 
Roman jurisprudence, 199. Next in 
antiquity to Leges Regiae— their cha- 
racter — learned by children — ex- 
planation of, confined to priests — 
oral expositions of, 202. 

Tacitus, C. Cornelius, his testimony to 
general esteem for Virgil, 242. Praise 
of Csesar as an orator, 375. His 
brevity compared with Sallust's, 392. 
Reasons for dearth of writers after 
Augustan era, 420. Speaks of 
Seneca as a poet, 426. His history 
— parallel with satires of Juvenal, 
450. Style of, characteristic of reign 
of Trajan, 485. Works of, in har- 
mony with those of Pliny — date of 
birth unknown — Pliny's account of 
— tradition of — birth — rank — mar- 
riage — offices, 486. Distinguished 
for gravity of style — time of death 
uncertain — his works — date of — 
Niebuhr's opinion on, 487. Life of 
Agricola — a panegyric, 488. The 
' Germany ' of, 489. His ' Histories ' 
— ' Annals,' 494. His prudence, 496. 
His style, 497. His brevity, 498. 
Letter of Younger Pliny to, 519. 
Treatise ' on Causes of Corrupt Elo- 
quence ' — generally referred to, 540. 

Tarentum, Pacuvius dies at, 135. 

Tarquin, name discovered in tomb at 
Cervetri, 21. 



INDEX. 



589 



Terentia, wife of Maecenas, scandal con- 
cerning, 302. 

, wife of Cicero, her divorce, 338. 

Teucer, Octavius, grammarian, teaches 
in Gaul, 206. 

Theatre, Roman, similar to Greek 
(note), 5o. Size of, SO. Contrasted 
with Grecian, 129. How changed, 
143. 

, Pompey's, 143. 

' Thebaid,' epic poem of P. P. Statius, 
inferior to his ' Silvoo,' 470. Why- 
admired by Dante, 471. Subject of, 
472. 

Theocritus, contemporary with Ennius, 
75. ' Idylls ' of, imitated from mimes 
of Sophron, 209. Character of, 246. 
Imitated by Virgil — Cyclops original 
of Second Eclogue, 247. 

Theopompus of Chios, Trogus Pom- 
peius derives materials of work from, 
393. 

'Theriaca,' poem of Nicander, para- 
phrased by Macer, 312. 

'Thesaurus,' comedy of Menander, 
translated by Luscius, 122. 

Thomson, how indebted to Virgil — ex- 
amples of, 257. 

Thrasea, Paetus, how related to Persius, 
434. Blamed by Tacitus, 497. 

Thucydides, his brevity compared with 
Sallust's, 391. Livy compared with, 
403. 

' Thyestes' of Varius, stolen from Cas- 
sius or Virgil, 134. Niebuhr's opinion 
of, 305. 

Tiberius, Emperor, augments Palatine 
library, 365. How treated by 
Eomans — changes character after 
death of Sejanus, 418. Character of, 
421. Paterculus legate to — V. Maxi- 
mus wrote in reign of, 483. Pro- 
nounces funeral oration of his father, 
540. 

Tibiae dextrae and sinistra?, character 
and use of, 81. 

impares, 82. 

Tibullus, Albius, his birth and rank — 
contemporary with Virgil — estate 
confiscated — his character — patron- 
ized by Messala — makes campaign 
with — subject of his verse — reasons 
for return to Piome — subjects of his 
elegies — real persons, 307. Names 
used by him — how applied by 
Apuleius — character of writings — 
censure of Niebuhr — his death — epi- 
gram upon, 308. Poems attributed 



to him — some spurious — Muretus' 
opinion of, 309. His character, epi- 
gram upon, 310. 

Tiburtine inscription, the, 25. When 
discovered — when lost — Niebuhr's 
conjectures respecting — by whom 
given — example of, 26. 

Ticida, poet, bears testimony to merits 
of V. Cato, 235. 

' Timacus ' of Plato translated by Cicero, 
357. 

Tiraboschi, his idea respecting banish- 
ment of Ovid, 318. 

Titus, Emperor, Martial favourite of, 
475. 

Titze, his opinion on work attributed 
to Annasus Florus, 506. 

Tivoii, the ancient Tibur inscriptions 
found at, 26. 

Tomi, Tomoswar or Baba, Ovid banished 
to, 317. 

' Topica,' treatise of Cicero on judicial 
oratory, 350. 

Torquatus, T. Manlius, consul — juris- 
consult, 203. 

Trabea, Q., his works — fragments of, 
preserved by Cicero — date unknown 
— anecdote of Scaliger respecting 
verses of, 123. 

1 Trachiniae ' of Sophocles, translated 
by Attius — specimen of, preserved by 
Varro, 139. 

Trajan, Emperor, forms Ulpian library, 
365. Fit successor to Nerva — influ- 
ence on Roman state and on litera- 
ture — of wife and sister, 485. Re- 
ply to Pliny the Younger, 532. 

Tragedy, its character, 60. 

, Roman, transplanted from 

Athens, 124. Flourished during 
one century — five writers of— little 
more than an imitation, 124. Want 
of originality — reasons for, 133. 
Three eras of, 134. Disappears from 
stage with Attius — afterwards writ- 
ten only to be read, 141. State of 
Rome unfavourable to, 142. Its re- 
vival, 424, 

Tranquillus, C. Suetonius, his account 
of popularity of Ludi Osci, 48. Of 
Otacihus Pilitus, 177. Places L. 
Andronicus and Ennius at head of 
grammarians, 205. Praises Caesars' 
oratory — quotes testimony of Cicero 
in favour of, 375. Account of brazen 
tablets, 400. Biography of Juvenal 
attributed to, 445. Parentage — birth 
— education — profession — anecdote 



590 



INDEX. 



of Pliny respecting, 499. Pliny's love 
for -secret aryt ^Hadrian-eat alogue 
of writings bySuidas-his chief ex- 
tant work S - r biography of Oesars, 
500. Opinions of Niebuhr and 
Krause respecting, 501 

™£:^ 

' Trmummus, ' comedy of Plautus 

Trio, Fulcmius, his will, 417 

Iristia ' poems of Ovid, their charac- 
T™ i : H ? Ce s e P lthet f °r, 323. 
Trochee adapted to Anacreontic verse, 

'^riet^f^' S ^ ° f Plaut ^ 
variety of incidents in— graphic de- 
lation of character in-mS pic- 
ture detestable, 97 P 

TU (fe L ' J A S ° n ° f ' Q - le S ate of Q. 
Ucero m Asia, 178. 

"~Cicer Q o m liU r' ? ntem P°*«y with 
oldcfl' i 7 ' Last re P re sentative of 
old school-supporter of aristocracy 

^nf 01 i C r C te racter of his writings- 
quoted by Dionysius and Liv Y 178 

5S" 1 * °A Sem P ro »^ dorian, 
scholar, and gentleman, 172 

338* daUghter of Cicero > ter death, 

TuUus, Laurea, freedman of Cicero 

poetical compliment of, 362 
lurpio, Ambivius, Eoman manao-er 

Full" n S ^^^ 

TU T^ S \ Sext 1 US ' fra S m ents and titles 
of works alone remaining - latter 
Greek-date of his death, 123. 
Tusculanae Disputationes, ' moral' 
£*«af Cicero- p^ cip ^ 

Tusculum, Cato, born at, 158. Cicero's 
T,,T5r at T"- SCe ? e of ' De Oratore,' 193 
*£Ej<& daUght6r «W 
S^S lib rary, its extent, 364 

y t^lir^ their a » ta ~ 

Tyrseni, name of Etruscans, origin of, 



v zrs2^,^~> ^ 



Varro M. Terentius Reatinus, his date 
for death of N^vius, 47. iCtratel 
etymology from Ennius, 76 Epi- 
gram on Plautus-on Noctes AttS, 
»1. Opinion of genuineness of his 

he library-devotes himself to litera- 
ture — death — erudition — stvle — 
power of systematizing - want of 
original thought, 366. His works- 
ite antiquities— used by St. Au^us- 

Mn~a' I) ^ eEUStiCa,JDe T 4£ 
^uatma — Saturse poems, 367. 

14« n' f- tacinus > fails in satire, 

nut h? v e S P ? raiy ^ V - ^ ati - 
f S r? blrt Mace-name whence 
derived -poetry copied by Virgil - 
fragments of, remaining, 236 
Varronianus' of Donaldson, copy of 
Bantme Tables in, 17 P/ 

Varus, Pompeius, Horace's ode to, 271 
v .' .; 4;? ftudies philosophy with 
S? Xth E ° l0gUe add ^ssed to, 

~^lo^^ 

Vennonius contemporary with Fani- 
mus, author of annals referred to by 
Dionysius, 172 J 

Venu^ estate at, belonging to father 
of Horace, 268. Forfeited, 272 

Vmucius, M consul-work of Velleius 
Paterculus dedicated to, 483 
ft' ^T Macer bom at, 312 
M v'p^v* b ^ ™™vius Cerdo 

a! 4nk' vv° S S?, t0 , have been bo ™ 
at, 406 Phny Elder born at, 515. 

Verres defended by Hortensius 198. 
Versification always difficult to Ro- 
mans, 65. 

IVescio,' historical play of Persius, 128. 

Vespasian, Emperor, places library in 
Temple of Peace, 365. Confers jus 
Latn on Bi bihs, 475 Suetonius' 

?09 1S %7° bjecte , d t0 b yNiebuhr, 
ou^ Endows professorships, 535. ' 
Vesuvius, Vitruvius Pollio ignorant of 
eruption of, 407. Eruption of de- 
senbea by Younger Pliny, 519 
at 14 aDCient Iguvium tables "found 

Vico', Gian Baptista, reduces Roman 
law to system, 201. 



INDEX. 



591 



Yidularia,' comedy of Plautus, remains 
of, found in palimpsest MS. at Milan, 
92. 

Viininal Hill, palace of Gallus on, 204. 

Yirgilius see Maro. 

Virtue, Roman, its character, 132. 

Yitellius, S. Italicus friend of, 463. 

Viteliu, Oscan orthography for Italia, 
17. 

Vitruvius, see Pollio. 

Vituli, Sikeli, 7. 

Umbria, Propertius, born in, 309. 

Umbrians, a tribe of Italy, of same 
family as SabeUians or Sabines, 7. 
Of same stock as Oscans — antiquity 
claimed by — original settlements of 
— their extent — origin of name — con- 
sidered by Pliny most ancient race 
in Italy, 8. Driven by Etruscans 
into mountains — lived among con- 
querors a subject people, 9. Not 
related to Greeks in language, 13. 
Umbrian language and character, 
remnants of — alphabet same as 
Etruscans — medial letters wanting — 
its relation to Latin, 14. Kesem- 
blance to Latin — translation of, 15. 



Voconius, Pliny Younger's letter to, 
528. 

Voss rejects poems attributed to Catul- 
lus, 309. 

Vowels, when elided in Augustan age, 
86. 

Urbicus, Argenius, one of the Agri- 
mensorcs, 548. 

Ustica, valley of, Horace's farm at — 
Valle Eustica, 285. 

Utica, Naevius exiled to, 59. 

Wars, their social consequences to 

Eome, 126. 
, the German, history of, by Elder 

Pliny — its origin, 516. 
Wolf, T. A., opinion concerning Q. 

Curtius, 504. 
' Woman-hater,' comedy of Atilius, 122. 
Wycherly, compared with Terence, 104. 

Xanthus, Lydian historian, does not 
notice migration of Etruscans, 9. 
j Xenophon compared with Caesar, 381. 

Zama, anniversary of battle of, Scipio's 
triumph on, 182. 
I Zosimus misquoted by Suidas, 213. 



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